Gender Differences in the Relationships between Research Impact and Compensation and Promotion - A Case Study Among PhD/PharmD Medical/Dental School Faculty

Oct 15, 2026

Study examines whether research impact relates differently to faculty compensation and promotion to full professor for male versus female associate and full professors within the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. The analysis excludes MD and DDS faculty and proxies research impact using the h-index based on citation counts. Results show male compensation rises with h-index increases, while female compensation shows little correlation. Female promotion to full professor requires higher research impact proxies than male peers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Gender Differences in the Relationships between Research Impact and Compensation and Promotion: A Case Study Among PhD/PharmD Medical/Dental School Faculty Andrew McGee University of Alberta Paige Lacy University of Alberta Anna Oswald University of Alberta Rhonda J. Rosychuk University of Alberta Abstract We examine whether the effects of research impact on faculty compensation and promotion to full professor differ for male and female associate and full professors in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. We exclude faculty with MDs and DDSs and proxy for research impact using the faculty member’s h-index, where h represents the number of publications that have been cited at least h times. We find that while the compensation of male faculty members increases by 0 .6% for every one-unit increase in the h-index, the compensation of female faculty is essentially uncorrelated with their h-indices. We likewise find that for female faculty to be promoted to full professor they have to have higher research impact proxies than their male peers. Our findings highlight the urgent need for more research on the gendered relationships between research impact and career rewards among faculty. Keywords: gender pay gap, productivity, promotion, academic medicine Résumé Nous avons évalué l’impact de la recherche sur la rémunération du corps professoral et la promotion au rang de professeur titulaire, entre les professeurs agrégés et titulaires hommes et femmes de la Faculté de médecine et de dentisterie de l’Université de l’Alberta. Nous avons exclu les professeurs cliniciens ayant un doctorat en médecine (MD) ou un doctorat en médecine dentaire (DDSs) . L’impact de la recherche a été évalué à l’aide de l’indice h de chaque membre du corps professoral, où h représente le nombre de publications qui ont été citées au moins h fois. Nous constatons ainsi que tandis que la rémunération des hommes augmente en moyenne de 0,6 % pour chaque augmentation d’une unité de l’indice h, la rémunération des femmes est essentiellement non corrélée avec leurs indices h. Nous constatons également que les professeures atteignent la parité pour la promotion au poste de professeur titulaire avec les professeurs masculins équivalents à des indicateursd’impact de la recherche considérablement supérieurs aux valeurs médianes normalement attendues pour une promotion au poste de professeur titulaire. Nos résultats mettent en évidence le besoin urgent de plus de recherches sur les relations entre le genre et l’impact de la recherche sur l’avancement de la carrière chez les professeurs-chercheurs. Mots-clés : écart de rémunération entre les genres, productivité, promotion, médecine universitaire Canadian Journal of Higher Education | Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur 52:2 (2022) Introduction A number of Canadian universities including Acadia University, McMaster University, Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary, University of Alberta, University of Guelph, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia have undertaken reviews of faculty compensation in the last decade to determine whether gender1 inequities in compensation exist. These studies have documented gender-based pay gaps ranging between $1,496 and $3,515 (e.g. , Abramson & Rippeyoung, 2012; Bakker et al. , 2010; Kaufmann, 2017; Kessler & Pendakur, 2015; McMaster University, 2015), even after controlling for rank, discipline, and years at the university. In percent terms, Benjamin et al. (2019) found that female faculty at the University of Toronto earned 1.3% less than their male peers after controlling for faculty characteristics. Consistent with these findings from individual universities, Momani et al. (2019) use publicly available compensation data for all Ontario universities to document that male university teaching staff earn 2% more than female teaching staff even after controlling for rank, years with the employer

FAQs

How does the study measure research impact?

It uses the faculty member’s h-index, where h is the number of publications cited at least h times.

What relationship does the study find between research impact and compensation for men and women?

Compensation for male faculty increases by about 0.6% per one-unit increase in the h-index, while female compensation is essentially uncorrelated with h-index values.

What does the study conclude about promotion to full professor?

For female faculty to be promoted to full professor, they need higher research impact proxies than their male peers.

Oct 15, 2026

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