The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot

Many astronomers now participate in large international scientific collaborations, and it is important to examine whether these structures foster a healthy scientific climate that is inclusive and diverse. The Committee on the Participation of Women in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (CPWS) was formed...

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Main Authors:	Lundgren, Britt, Kinemuchi, Karen, Zasowski, Gail, Lucatello, Sara, Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M., Tremonti, Christy A., Myers, Adam D., Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso, Gillespie, Bruce, Ho, Shirley, Gallagher, John S.
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	IOP Publishing 2015
Online Access:	http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/8/1505.06199.pdf

id	nottingham-42049
recordtype	eprints
spelling	nottingham-420492017-10-13T01:07:30Z http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot Lundgren, Britt Kinemuchi, Karen Zasowski, Gail Lucatello, Sara Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M. Tremonti, Christy A. Myers, Adam D. Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso Gillespie, Bruce Ho, Shirley Gallagher, John S. Many astronomers now participate in large international scientific collaborations, and it is important to examine whether these structures foster a healthy scientific climate that is inclusive and diverse. The Committee on the Participation of Women in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (CPWS) was formed to evaluate the demographics and gender climate within SDSS-IV, one of the largest and most geographically distributed astronomical collaborations. In April 2014, the CPWS administered a voluntary demographic survey to establish a baseline for the incipient SDSS-IV, which began observations in July 2014. We received responses from 250 participants (46% of the active membership). Half of the survey respondents were located in the United States or Canada and 30% were based in Europe. Approximately 65% were faculty or research scientists and 31% were postdocs or graduate students. Eleven percent of survey respondents considered themselves to be an ethnic minority at their current institution. Twenty-five percent of the SDSS-IV collaboration members are women, a fraction that is consistent with the US astronomical community, but substantially higher than the fraction of women in the International Astronomical Union (16%). Approximately equal fractions of men and women report holding positions of leadership in the collaboration. When binned by academic age and career level, men and women also assume leadership roles at approximately equal rates, in a way that increases steadily for both genders with increasing seniority. In this sense, SDSS-IV has been successful in recruiting leaders that are representative of the collaboration. That said, it is clear that more progress needs to be made towards achieving gender balance and increasing diversity in the field of astronomy, and there is still room for improvement in the membership and leadership of SDSS-IV. For example, at the highest level of SDSS-IV leadership, women disproportionately assume roles related to education and public outreach. The goal of the CPWS is to use these initial data to establish a baseline for tracking demographics over time as we work to assess and improve the climate of SDSS-IV. IOP Publishing 2015-08-03 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/8/1505.06199.pdf Lundgren, Britt and Kinemuchi, Karen and Zasowski, Gail and Lucatello, Sara and Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M. and Tremonti, Christy A. and Myers, Adam D. and Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso and Gillespie, Bruce and Ho, Shirley and Gallagher, John S. (2015) The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 127 (954). pp. 776-788. ISSN 0004-6280 http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/682387 doi:10.1086/682387 doi:10.1086/682387
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
building	Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Many astronomers now participate in large international scientific collaborations, and it is important to examine whether these structures foster a healthy scientific climate that is inclusive and diverse. The Committee on the Participation of Women in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (CPWS) was formed to evaluate the demographics and gender climate within SDSS-IV, one of the largest and most geographically distributed astronomical collaborations. In April 2014, the CPWS administered a voluntary demographic survey to establish a baseline for the incipient SDSS-IV, which began observations in July 2014. We received responses from 250 participants (46% of the active membership). Half of the survey respondents were located in the United States or Canada and 30% were based in Europe. Approximately 65% were faculty or research scientists and 31% were postdocs or graduate students. Eleven percent of survey respondents considered themselves to be an ethnic minority at their current institution. Twenty-five percent of the SDSS-IV collaboration members are women, a fraction that is consistent with the US astronomical community, but substantially higher than the fraction of women in the International Astronomical Union (16%). Approximately equal fractions of men and women report holding positions of leadership in the collaboration. When binned by academic age and career level, men and women also assume leadership roles at approximately equal rates, in a way that increases steadily for both genders with increasing seniority. In this sense, SDSS-IV has been successful in recruiting leaders that are representative of the collaboration. That said, it is clear that more progress needs to be made towards achieving gender balance and increasing diversity in the field of astronomy, and there is still room for improvement in the membership and leadership of SDSS-IV. For example, at the highest level of SDSS-IV leadership, women disproportionately assume roles related to education and public outreach. The goal of the CPWS is to use these initial data to establish a baseline for tracking demographics over time as we work to assess and improve the climate of SDSS-IV.
format	Article
author	Lundgren, Britt Kinemuchi, Karen Zasowski, Gail Lucatello, Sara Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M. Tremonti, Christy A. Myers, Adam D. Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso Gillespie, Bruce Ho, Shirley Gallagher, John S.
spellingShingle	Lundgren, Britt Kinemuchi, Karen Zasowski, Gail Lucatello, Sara Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M. Tremonti, Christy A. Myers, Adam D. Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso Gillespie, Bruce Ho, Shirley Gallagher, John S. The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot
author_facet	Lundgren, Britt Kinemuchi, Karen Zasowski, Gail Lucatello, Sara Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M. Tremonti, Christy A. Myers, Adam D. Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso Gillespie, Bruce Ho, Shirley Gallagher, John S.
author_sort	Lundgren, Britt
title	The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot
title_short	The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot
title_full	The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot
title_fullStr	The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot
title_full_unstemmed	The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot
title_sort	sdss-iv in 2014: a demographic snapshot
publisher	IOP Publishing
publishDate	2015
url	http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42049/8/1505.06199.pdf
first_indexed	2018-09-06T13:17:16Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T13:17:16Z
_version_	1610864223306383360

The SDSS-IV in 2014: a demographic snapshot

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