Gender differences in research collaboration

The debate on the role of women in the academic world has focused on various phenomenathat could be at the root of the gender gap seen in many nations. However, in spite of the evermore collaborative character of scientific research, the issue of gender aspects in researchcollaborations has been treated in a marginal manner. In this article we apply an innovativebibliometric approach based on the propensity for collaboration by individual academics,which permits measurement of gender differences in the propensity to collaborate by fields,disciplines and forms of collaboration: intramural, extramural domestic and international.The analysis of the scientific production of Italian academics shows that women researchersregister a greater capacity to collaborate in all the forms analyzed, with the exception ofinternational collaboration, where there is still a gap in comparison to male colleagues.