Authors’ Gender and Productivity as Predictors of Reciprocal Dynamics in Publications and Citations in Communication

Gender biases in academic publishing and citation practices in communication have been discussed extensively, yet the link between the two remains poorly understood. Does publishing more automatically mean getting cited more—and what are the underlying personal (e.g., gender, productivity) and systemic (e.g., journal prestige) factors? We analyzed 57,283 articles and 507,706 citations from 85 communication journals between 2000 and 2022. We show that the number of publications significantly influences the number of citations. However, this dynamic does not benefit men and women equally: although women publish more, they are cited less. Journal prestige does not play a role. We argue that personal factors must be addressed through systemic change to close the publication-citation gap and foster fair academic recognition.