UEM has led the ranking of female scientific production in Brazil for six years
- MARILAYDE COSTA - ASC
- News
Leiden Ranking 2024 also places the institution 1st in the Americas and in the Southern Hemisphere in the gender indicator
For the sixth consecutive year, the State University of Maringá (Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM) ranks first in Brazil in scientific production led by women, also consolidating its position among the 20 best institutions in the country in the scientific impact indicator, with positions ranging from 18th to 20th place. The data comes from the Leiden Ranking, drawn up since 2011 by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) from Leiden University in the Netherlands. Since CWTS introduced the gender indicator in the ranking in 2019, UEM leads the Brazilian ranking in the proportion of female authors compared to male authors.
In the 2024 edition of the Leiden Ranking, another highlight is that UEM is the 19th university with the highest female scientific production in the world among the 1,506 universities analyzed from 2019 to 2022. With 53.3% female researchers, the same percentage as last year, UEM has maintained its leadership among universities in the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere for six consecutive years.
Regarding the 2024 scientific impact indicator, UEM is ranked 20th among Brazilian institutions and is the fourth best-placed state university, behind only the University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo - USP), São Paulo State University (Universidade Estadual Paulista - Unesp) and the State University of Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Unicamp), which are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively. All the others in the top 20 are federal universities. As far as South American universities are concerned, UEM is in the 25th position, remaining the fourth best-placed state university, along with USP, Unesp and Unicamp in the same position.
Still on the scientific impact indicator, UEM stands out as the 1st ranked state university in Paraná, occupying the 834th position in the global ranking. The institution surpasses other Brazilian public universities, such as the State University of Londrina (Universidade Estadual de Londrina - UEL), which is in 1,070th position, the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ), 948th, the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo - Ufes), 950th, and the Federal Technological University of Paraná (Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná - UTFPR), 1,009th.
In addition to gender and scientific impact, CWTS analyzes two other parameters: collaborations (articles in partnership with other institutions); and open access (proportion of free articles in relation to restricted ones). In these areas, UEM ranks 27th in Brazil, 36th in South America and 994th in the world.
UEM's rector, Leandro Vanalli, congratulates the academic community for being recognized in yet another world-class ranking. "It is a source of great pride for the State University of Maringá to achieve this international recognition. This result not only highlights UEM's commitment to gender equality, but also demonstrates the quality and relevance of the research conducted by our female researchers. We are certain that this distinction will inspire future generations of scientists and strengthen our mission to promote a more inclusive, diverse and innovative science."
For the Head of the Office of Research and Graduate Affairs (Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação - PPG), Marcos Bruschi, UEM's ranking in the Leiden Ranking is a reflection of the high quality and intensity of the research carried out at the institution. "It's important to relate UEM's context on the regional, national and international stage to its mission, resulting in this high performance. It's a ranking that shows UEM's important performance in the scientific field, compared to more than 1,500 of the world's leading universities."
Scientist Women
With more than 30 years' experience in sanitary and chemical engineering, Rosângela Bergamasco, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering (Departamento de Engenharia Química - DEQ) at UEM, has seen an increase in the presence of women in scientific research. She believes that this increase in women is due to the increase in calls for proposals from CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and the Araucária Foundation, which allocate a specific percentage to projects carried out by women. "These calls for proposals have encouraged more and more female researchers to work in science, guaranteeing our place."
CNPq will also start rewarding female researchers for the value of their scientific work from next year. Earlier this month, the Council launched the Prêmio Mulheres e Ciência, in which it will invest around R$500,000 in prizes. Applications are open until January 6th, 2025.
Bergamasco believes that if there were a structured career path for researchers, there would be more incentive for students to enter research. "As long as it's not a profession in Brazil, most of them accumulate the functions of teacher and researcher."
“Because we are more observant, more detail-oriented, we see things in detail, which is an important skill for scientific research. This is a characteristic of women. We have this differential and the skills to work in any job. For women who are starting their careers, I advise them to not be afraid, because today it's easier, the challenges are great in any profession, but the conditions today are much better," concluded Bergamasco, recalling that when she started the course, only 20% of her class were women.
Bergamasco has dedicated herself to environmental research, focusing on the treatment of effluents, solid waste and obtaining drinking water. Currently, her research focuses on the removal of emerging contaminants present in the water consumed by the population.
Also with more than 30 years' experience in the field of Immunology, with an emphasis on Immunogenetics and Immunohematology, Jeane Visentainer, a professor and researcher at the Department of Basic Health Sciences (Departamento de Ciências Básicas da Saúde - DBS), says that she hasn't had many difficulties in her career for being a woman, because her field, Pharmacy and Biochemistry, has always had many female students and professionals.
"I want to congratulate all the researchers, because not all areas are as easily accessible to women as they are to men. I think there's a lot of competition, and they (men) often end up having the upper hand, perhaps because of credibility or because people don't understand that women can also achieve very good results. Women are usually very dedicated to what they do and end up working harder because they want to get those results. They often have more humanity, which is part of the female essence. They tend to be more sentimental, looking for solutions, especially in the area of health, out of empathy for people facing certain illnesses."
Ever since she was a child, the researcher had in mind the desire to be a teacher and researcher, although at the time she didn't even know exactly what it meant to be a researcher. "Ever since I was young, my dream was to study certain diseases so that we could find a cure or treatment. I always thought about helping other people. I think this side of being a researcher came about precisely because I wanted to develop something for society that could contribute to improving people's health."
After graduating at UEM, Visentainer then began her professional career. "I soon began my academic career, as I joined a group of professors and researchers working on immunogenetics, which is a line that involves histocompatibility tests for organ and tissue transplants, and also involves a line that looks for immune response genes responsible for some diseases," she explains.
Visentainer currently coordinates the Immunogenetics Laboratory (Laboratório de Imunogenética - LIGUEM), which carries out histocompatibility tests (HLA typing) for bone marrow and kidney transplants. These tests are offered to the 30 municipalities in the 15th Health Region, as well as other regions, as determined by the Paraná State Transplant Center.
Leiden Ranking
Leiden Ranking provides relevant data on the academic research carried out by institutions, based on the scientific production registered in the Web of Science, a multidisciplinary database maintained by Clarivate Analytics. The analysis considers articles published by gender in five major areas of knowledge: Biomedical and Health Sciences; Life and Earth Sciences; Mathematics and Computer Sciences; Physical Sciences and Engineering; and Social Sciences and Humanities.
The ranking allows you to select sophisticated bibliometric indicators, generate results based on these indicators and explore the results from three different perspectives. The best known is the traditional list view, in which universities can be ranked according to a selected indicator. It offers two additional perspectives: the graph view and the map view. The graph view shows universities in a scatter plot, so you can explore university performance using two selected indicators. The map view shows universities on a world map and provides a geographical perspective of universities and their performance.
