Open access and gender statistics in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2019
Open access publishing and gender diversity are among the most heavily debated issues in science policy.
To inform the debate on these important topics, the 2019 edition of the CWTS Leiden Ranking, released on May 15, introduces indicators of open access publishing and gender diversity. These indicators, made available for all 963 universities worldwide included in the ranking, offer a large amount of systematic evidence on open access publishing and gender diversity at the level of research-intensive higher education institutions.
Ludo Waltman, deputy director of Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), comments on the new edition of the Leiden Ranking: “This is an important edition of our ranking. Adding open access and gender indicators has been a major effort for the Leiden Ranking team. We have made this effort because we believe there is a need for more systematic evidence to support debates on open access publishing and gender diversity.”
The new indicators included in the Leiden Ranking offer many insights. As discussed in a blog post by the Leiden Ranking team, the indicators show the growth in open access publishing, especially at European universities. They also show that most universities have many more male authors than female authors, although in general the share of female authors is gradually increasing. An increase in the share of female authors is also visible for Leiden University. In the period 2006-2009, 31% of all authors from Leiden University were female. In the period 2014-2017, the share of female authors was 37%.