For over forty years, social scientists have noted and puzzled over the 'gender gap' in publication rates of academic scientists. In this study, the author, Robert L. Fisher, argues that men and women scientists differ in their 'problem choice process' and that this difference may be behind much of the difference in publication rates. Fisher draws on a large literature review, including much unpublished European research, and a detailed survey of 107 scientists from numerous disciplines that he carried out in the late 1990s in both the United States and Canada, to support his thesis.

"The Research Productivity of Scientists...provides an important and unique take on the causes and perpetuation of the "gender gap" in the STEM fields, and provides a nice complement to the feminist science and sociology of science literature that documents and analyzes the relationships between gender, socialization, climate, and scientific research." - On Campus With Women