Amy Atchison

Will Open Access Get Me Cited? An Analysis of the Efficacy of Open Access Publishing in Political Science

The digital revolution has made it easier for political scientists to share and access high-quality research online. However, many articles are stored in proprietary databases that some institutions cannot afford. High-quality, peer-reviewed, top-tier journal articles that have been made open access (OA) (i.e., freely available online) theoretically should be accessed and cited more easily than articles of similar quality that are available only to paying customers. Research into the efficacy of OA publishing thus far has focused mainly on the natural sciences, and the results have been mixed. Because OA has not been as widely adopted in the social sciences, disciplines such as political science have received little attention in the OA research. In this article, we seek to determine the efficacy of OA in political science. Our primary hypothesis is that OA articles will be cited at higher rates than articles that are toll access (TA), which means available only to paying customers. We test this hypothesis by analyzing the mean citation rates of OA and TA articles from eight top-ranked political science journals. We find that OA publication results in a clear citation advantage in political science publishing.

The Impact of Female Cabinet Ministers on a Female-Friendly Labor Environment

The literature indicates that the representation of women in legislatures is positively associated with the passage of female-friendly social policy (e.g., child care or family leave). However, there is little corresponding research concerning the effects of women in cabinet on female-friendly social policy. I argue that this gap must be addressed, because most of the advanced industrial democracies are parliamentary democracies in which policies typically originate at the cabinet level, and governments typically enjoy substantial control over the legislative process. Thus, women in cabinet positions should be ideally placed to promote female-friendly policies; indeed, they are likely to be in a better position to promote these policies than their legislative counterparts. The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of female cabinet ministers in the adoption of female-friendly policies, thus addressing this gap in the gender and politics literature. It should be noted that the influence of female officeholders on female-friendly policy may differ by policy. To assess female officeholders’ effect on female friendly policy in general, I create an index measure using 17 variables related to these policy areas. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, I find that female ministers have a significant effect on the adoption of policies that help to create a more female-friendly working environment.

Negating the Gender Citation Advantage in Political Science

Open-access (OA) advocates have long promoted OA as an egalitarian alternative to traditional subscription-based academic publishing. The argument is simple: OA gives everyone access to high-quality research at no cost. In turn, this should benefit individual researchers by increasing the number of people reading and citing academic articles. As the OA movement gains traction in the academy, scholars are investing considerable research energy to determine whether there is an OA citation advantage—that is, does OA increase an article’s citation counts? Research indicates that it does. Scholars also explored patterns of gender bias in academic publishing and found that women are cited at lower rates in many disciplines. Indeed, in many disciplines, men enjoy a significant and positive gender citation effect (GCE) compared to their female colleagues. This article combines these research areas to determine whether the OA citation advantage varies by gender. Using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney (WMW) tests, the nonparametric analog to the independent samples T-test, I conclude that OA benefits male and female political scientists at similar rates. Thus, OA negates the gender citation advantage that typically accrues to male political scientists.

The Politics of Presence in Academic Professional Associations: A Research Note on Governance at the APSA

Professional associations like the American Political Science Association (APSA) are intended to represent the interests of all of the members of the profession. The APSA has worked diligently to increase diversity in its leadership, successfully bringing more women and minorities into APSA governance. However, there has not been a corresponding effort to ensure that members from diverse institution types have a seat at the table. This is important because different institution types have different professional issues and interests. In this research note, I explore the extent to which APSA’s leadership is reflective of the range of institution types in higher education. I find that the APSA’s leadership is disproportionately comprised of members from large doctoral-granting universities and elite graduate programs. I conclude with potential ramifications and suggestions for further research.

Where Are the Women? An Analysis of Gender Mainstreaming in Introductory Political Science Textbooks

ABSTRACT Textbook content is a powerful indicator of what is and is not considered important in a given discipline. Textbooks shape both curriculum and students’ thinking about a subject. The extant literature indicates that gender is not well represented in American government textbooks, thus signaling to students that women and gender are not part of the mainstream in political science. I contribute to this literature by using quantitative and qualitative content analysis to examine gender mainstreaming in 10 introductory political science textbooks. I find that the quantity of gendered content is small, and the quality of that content varies considerably from text to text.

Gender equality policy in comparative perspective

Since the mid-1970s, gender equality policy has become increasingly important at all levels of the global political system (Friedman 2003). This can be attributed to a number of factors, including the UN’s world conferences on women, growing numbers of women in the labor market, the rise of second-wave feminism, and the proliferation of women’s organizations pushing for government action on gender equality (Antrobus 2004; Reilly 2007). In the same time period, many states have seen rising numbers of female officeholders. These changes have led scholars to explore which policies stimulate greater equality, why states adopt gender equality policy, and what effect female elected officials have had on the adoption of gender equality legislation. A significant portion of this research, particularly in advanced industrial democracies, where much of this research focuses its attention, has focused on a subgroup of gender equality policy called work/family reconciliation policy. This includes policies that are specifically designed help parents, primarily mothers, reconcile family, and paid employment (e.g., family leave, childcare, and working time) (Abrahamson 2007; Atchison 2015; Lanquetin, Laufer, and Letablier 2000; Lewis et al. 2008). Ultimately, the goal is to improve equality in the labor market by lessening the opportunity cost of motherhood (see Gornick and Heron 2006; Haas 2003; Kittilson 2008; Lewis 2006a, 2006b; Misra, Budig, and Moller 2007). In the following, I first discuss why reconciliation policy has become a public policy concern. I then briefly outline the literature on the determinants of reconciliation policy before reviewing the Boling and Avdeyeva books, both of which seek to further our understanding of how genderrelated policy comes to fruition. I conclude by discussing a few potential areas for further research.