Methodology

The Recognizing Scholar's data is gathered by systematically searching the websites for posted awards.

Data is collected by search of the award listings of scientific societies and relevant professional organizations. The data is “scraped” from the site, entered into a content management system, parsed into awardees, award, year of award, awarding body, and the sex of the recipient. It is not always possible to determine whether someone is male or female by name alone, so it is fortunate for data collection that photographs are usually posted on the website. This has made identification of the sex much easier. However, we do not categorize by ethnic identity.

Data collection began in 2006. Subsequently information about awardees starting in 1981 was added.

Data for the number of women and men in specific fields is obtained from publications of the National Science Foundation for STEM and the American Association of Medical Colleges for Medicine.

Publications:
1. Lincoln A, Pincus S, Koster J and Leboy P. The Matilda Effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000s. Soc Stud Sci: 42(2) 307-320, 2012.
2. Lincoln A, Pincus S, and Leboy P. Scholars' awards go mainly to men. Nature 469:472, 2011.
3. Lincoln A, Pincus S, and Schick V. Evaluating Science or Evaluating Gender? The Back Page, APS News 18(6):8, 2009