Picking the best publications to showcase graduate courses: Do institutional mechanisms reinforce gender differences?

Abstract

Previous studies performed by our research group have brought to light the concept "scientific capital" developed by Bourdieu to characterize the vertical segregation framework in Brazilian science, specifically Brazilian graduate programs, which is the main piece of the country's S&T system. The present study still focuses on gender differences in Brazilian graduate programs but it turns attention to their institutional assignments. Among all information sent annaually to Capes evaluation process, heads of graduate programs have to send the top five publications of the year. Considering the institutional relevance of this set of publications, the present study aims to identify whether an institutional mechanism, as the choice of the best publications of the graduate program by the heads, promotes gender equality or reinforces discrepancies in Brazilian academia. Preliminary results, performed upon official data of teacher-researchers performance affiliated to Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, suggest that males rather than females more are more represented in this selective set of publications.