Gender disparity in library and information science research: A decadal analysis of lead authorship and citation impact

Gender imbalance in research leadership remains one of the underexplored dimensions of Indian Library and Information Science (LIS) scholarship. The present study analysed 6209 Scopus-indexed Indian LIS publications, garnering 78006 citations, from 2015 to 2024 from the gender perspective. The gender of first author was identified using Namsor gender detection application and randomly validated through manual verification. Male researchers led 4125 papers (66.44%) against 2084 (33.56%) led by women, with a lead authorship ratio of 1.98:1. A one-sample z-test confirmed that the female share lies far below parity (z = −25.90, p < 0.001), and a chi-square test of independence showed that the proportional gap did not change significantly across the ten years (χ² = 14.79, df = 9, p = 0.097), indicating that the disparity as structural rather than transitional. Male first-authored papers averaged 13.48 citations against 10.76 for female first-authored papers. Mann–Whitney U test found this 20.2% citation gap statistically marginal (p = 0.054) with a negligible effect size, indicating that the disadvantage women face lies in access to lead authorship rather than in the impact of the work they lead. Women authors, however, significantly collaborate more often (χ² = 8.85, p = 0.003) and hold only 2 of the top 25 productive first-author positions. The study offers evidence-based insights into the structural gender disparity prevailing in Indian LIS research and recommends a gender-responsive research policy.