Examining Subject Area, Gender and Race in CDR Content

Last month, we released a preliminary assessment of subject area, gender and race in Carolina Digital Repository content projects. The full assessment is available in the CDR, but we wanted to highlight a few key findings:

  • The subject content of the CDR overwhelmingly represents the science and technology areas of the university.
  • Authors of scholarship included in the CDR’s open access projects primarily identify as white and male. These findings align with the demographics of UNC-Chapel Hill tenure and tenure-track faculty.
  • The CV review project was most effective at identifying scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, by women and by people identifying as black, indigenous or a person of color.
  • The Highly Cited Researchers project was successful in opening research by female-identified authors.

With these findings in mind, we will refocus the CDR’s open access projects to be more in line with the UNC Libraries’ Reckoning Initiative Framework. In the next year, we will:

  • Research and reflect on ways to identify gender and race of CDR authors in an accurate and ethical manner.
  • Continue review and deposit of CVs from faculty who identify as black, indigenous or a person of color.
  • Review CVs of researchers engaged in research on racial and gender equity.
  • Revisit Highly Cited Researchers who identify as women and deposit all eligible scholarship, rather than only the highest cited scholarship.

 

 

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