“Why MANtoring is not the solution. A Rebuttal to ‘The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance.’”

The findings of AlShebli Makovi & Rahwan1 highlight an endemic problem in science: co-authoring with men is associated with greater numbers of citations for junior scientists than co-authoring with women. The reasons for this likely stem from a long history and culture in science where White, straight, cisgender men are the dominant force. Under the authors’ assumption that authorship is equal to mentorship (a notion we criticize below), the reported citation disparity by coauthor gender for junior scientists may simply reflect that under the current status quo there are more barriers for women to establish strong mentorship programs and secure resources to support their mentees compared to men. In other words, citation disparity is the problem, not the solution as proposed by the authors. We argue that the citation disparity is uncorrelated with mentorship and the quality of the publication. Unfortunately, AlShebli Makovi & Rahwan err in their publication in two ways: they define mentorship as co-authorship (albeit with conditions), and they prescribe the problem as a solution suggesting that junior scientists, especially women, ought to be mentored by men - a proposal we have aptly named “MANtoring”. These faulty interpretations and conclusions reveal a broader problem in scholarship: failure to critically examine structural biases and assumptions when evaluating and interpreting data showing disparity. Much work is needed to improve the culture of science and to provide a more fair and equitable environment for individuals of any background (women in this case, but a similar reasoning would apply to people historically marginalized based on gender, race, sexuality, class, and other dimensions) to thrive2. The AlShebli et al article is a wakeup call to authors in all disciplines to take greater care in interpreting and acting on their disparity data. Failure to do so could have catastrophic effects on science including the irony of exacerbating the very problems researchers are attempting to address.

Retraction Note: The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance

This article has been retracted. Please see the retraction notice for more detail: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20617-y

Criticism of the paper “The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance”

The authors of this letter represent a large student body who have generally had especially positive experiences with female mentors’ advice and mentorships and do not support the conclusions of the article “The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance” because its conclusions regarding gender reach beyond the article’s scope and because the quality of mentorships cannot be analysed only through citation counts. Publications are not equivalent to learning outcomes or professional advancement.After careful review of the aforementioned article, we see numerous scientific flaws. The causal inferences that can be drawn from the observed effects of gender on the mentor-protégé relationship are insubstantial and other aspects of the paper are limited in the reductionist design of their mentor-protégé relationship assessment, which is based on the scientific impact of future papers.

Comment on: The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance

This comment is written in response to the recent article published in Nature Communications (17th November 2020) entitled, ‘The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance’ by AlShebli et al. This short paper provides a theoretical foundation based upon current literature to propose an alternative framework from which to conduct the analysis of the data collected by AlShebli et al. (2020).We believe that AlShebli et al’s (2020) results corroborate, at unique scale, the well-documented gender citation bias. We find that the interpretation of the data, that junior academic careers (both men and women) see greater career benefits when being mentored by senior men, is lacking theoretical foundation and not cognisant of the accepted knowledge on this topic. We are motivated in responding to this article by our concern that should this interpretation go unchallenged, we see a very high risk to the participation and progression of women in STEM academia.

Archaeological Sites Along Cuthand Creek and the Sulphur River in the Mid–Sulphur River Basin, Red River County, Texas

The Cuthand Creek and Little Mustang Creek drainage basins in the mid–Sulphur River basin are in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas. Prehistoric archaeological sites are abundant in both basins and along the Sulphur River, dating from as early as Paleoindian times to the Late Caddo periods. Nevertheless, this area remains poorly known and there have been few professional archaeological investigations conducted here. In this article, we present information on a range of prehistoric sites and associated artifact assemblages known along Cuthand Creek and the Sulphur River in the mid–Sulphur River Basin, in Red River County, Texas. The artifacts that are discussed herein are in the collections of the junior author.

Recent Artifact Surface Collections from the M. S. Roberts (41HE8) Mound Site in the Upper Neches River Basin in East Texas

In January 2015, the junior author obtained, with the assistance of the landowners, a surface collection of artifacts from the M. S. Roberts site (41HE8), a long-forgotten ancestral Caddo mound center and settlement in the upper Neches River basin in Henderson County, Texas. This collection of artifacts is discussed in this article, and comparisons are made to the larger assemblage of Caddo ceramic vessel sherds obtained during 1931 investigations at the site by Pearce and Jackson.

A Middle Caddo Period Cemetery (41FK97/139) on Big Cypress Creek in Franklin County, Texas

In the early 1990s, an ancestral Caddo habitation site and cemetery was reported to the junior author in the Big Cypress Creek valley in Franklin County in East Texas by a local collector. The site is in an area of other known ancestral Caddo cemeteries, including the Bruce J. Connally Farm (41FK5) and the P. G. Hightower Farm (41FK7). In this article we summarize the available information about this important but still little known ancestral Caddo site.

Prehistoric Sites in the Sabine River Valley in Northeastern Smith County, Texas Timothy K. Perttula and Mark Walters

In the winter of 2003, the junior author completed archaeological survey investigations of a small area of the Sabine River valley in northeastern Smith County in the East Texas Pineywoods. The work consisted of limited surface collections and shovel tests, and four archaeological sites were found during the work. The sites are about 2.4-3.0 km south-southwest of the Early Caddo period Boxed Spring mound site (41UR30) on the north side of the Sabine River. Two of the archaeological sites (41SM307 and 41SM308) are situated on alluvial landforms in the Sabine River valley at elevations of ca. 280-290 ft. amsl. The other two (41SM309 and 41SM310) are on upland landforms at elevations of 310 ft. amsl and 350 ft. amsl, respectively.

Using the supporting material during the examination

About twenty years ago all examinations at the Faculty of Mathematics of Vilnius University were oral. During the past years the situation has been changed radically – almost all examinations are writen. Written examinations can be open-book or closed-book. The older of autors of this article allows to prepare and to use during the mathematical analysis examinations the A4 sheet with specific information. The writen information can be from the knowledge level according to the Bloom’s taxonomy – definitions, formulations of theorems, formulae, but not solutions of problems, proofs of theorems. This sheet should be returned together with solutions of exams. The junior author investigated the preparation, usage and relation between the information in this A4 sheets with the results of exams in her Bachelor and Master theses.

Ocypus (Matidus) primoriensis Smetana, a new species from the Russian Far East (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Staphylinini)

In a paper dealing with the Chinese species of the subgenera Ocypus Leach, 1819 s. str. and Matidus Motschulsky, 1860, the senior author (Smetana 2007) commented that, in addition to Ocypus coreanus (J. Müller, 1925), an additional, undescribed species occurs in the Russian Far East. Recently, the junior author collected a long series of specimens of this undescribed species in the southernmost part of the Sikhote-Alin mountain range. This material provides the basis for the present paper, in which the new species is described, illustrated and compared to O. coreanus.