PREreviews of “Systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation” | PREreview

Skip to preprint details Skip to PREreviews

Systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation

by Christine Y Chen, Sara S. Kahanamoku, Aradhna Tripati, Rosanna A. Alegado, Vernon R. Morris, Karen Andrade, and Justin Hosbey

Posted: July 1, 2022
Server: OSF Preprints
DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/xb57u

Abstract

Concerns about systemic racism at academic and research institutions have increased over the past decade. Here, we investigate data from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a major funder of research in the United States, and find evidence for pervasive racial disparities. In particular, white principal investigators (PIs) are consistently funded at higher rates than most non-white PIs. Funding rates for white PIs have also been increasing relative to annual overall rates with time. Moreover, disparities occur across all disciplinary directorates within the NSF and are greater for research proposals. The distributions of average external review scores also exhibit systematic offsets based on PI race. Similar patterns have been described in other research funding bodies, suggesting that racial disparities are widespread. The prevalence and persistence of these racial disparities in funding have cascading impacts that perpetuate a cumulative advantage to white PIs across all of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Read the preprint

1 Rapid PREreview

by Gary S McDowell

Where can I fill out a Rapid PREreview?

We’ve recently replaced Rapid PREreviews with Structured PREreviews.

You can write a Structured PREreview now.

We’ll be updating older Rapid PREreviews like these soon.

Aggregated Rapid PREreviews
Question	Yes	Unsure	N/A	No
Are the findings novel?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Are the results likely to lead to future research?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Is sufficient detail provided to allow reproduction of the study?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Are the methods and statistics appropriate for the analysis?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Are the principal conclusions supported by the data and analysis?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Does the manuscript discuss limitations?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Have the authors adequately discussed ethical concerns?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Does the manuscript include new data?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Are the data used in the manuscript available?	0%	0%	0%	100%
Is the code used in the manuscript available?	0%	0%	0%	100%
Would you recommend this manuscript to others?	100%	0%	0%	0%
Do you recommend this manuscript for peer review?	100%	0%	0%	0%

1 PREreview

Write a PREreview Request a PREreview

PREreview by Gary S McDowell

Authored by Gary S McDowell
Overall Summary:
This preprint analyzes National Science Foundation data on funding rates, award types, and proposal ratings from 1996 to 2019 to investigate racial disparities in funding. The preprint finds that:
- White investigators are funded at higher rates;
- Funding rates for White PIs increased…
Read the PREreview by Gary S McDowell