A socio-demographic study of the exoplanet direct imaging community II

TL;DR

This study investigates inclusion, diversity, equity, and well-being in the exoplanet direct imaging community by presenting a follow-up socio-demographic survey conducted at Spirit of Lyot 2022. Using a sample of $96$ responses from $218$ registered participants ($44\%$ response rate) collected over a $2.5$-year window from $January\ 2020$ to $June\ 2022$, the authors analyze six themes: demographics, conference visibility, recognition in publications and projects, disrespect, inappropriate behavior, and allyship, across job position, expatriation, gender, under-represented status, and parenthood. Key findings reveal a persistent leaky pipeline with higher exposure to disrespect and inappropriate behaviors among postdocs, women/non-binary researchers, and members of under-represented groups, as well as nuanced patterns in conference visibility and publication inclusion. The paper offers concrete recommendations for conferences and institutions, including opening SOC invitations to expatriates and non-permanent researchers, providing childcare resources, establishing a publishing conduct code, delivering allyship training, and clarifying harassment procedures to improve retention and innovation.

Abstract

Recognizing and addressing under-representation, exclusion, and problematic behavior within astronomy and astrophysics is crucial. In 2019, a survey was conducted at the Spirit of Lyot conference to evaluate the socio-demographics and well-being of the exoplanet and disk imaging community. This paper presents the results of a second survey, conducted at the 2022 Spirit of Lyot conference in Leiden, aiming to improve the evaluation of the community, expand diversity-related questions, and monitor the evolution of metrics since 2019. Sent to all participants, the survey received 96 responses. It measures respondents' visibility at conferences, recognition through publications and projects, experiences of disrespect or inappropriate behaviors as victims or witnesses, and identification as allies of minorities. These aspects were analyzed with respect to job position, expatriation, gender, belonging to another under-represented group (ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation), and parenthood.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: Demographics of the survey participants, in terms of (top) position and expertise, (2nd line) geography, (3rd line) belonging to an under-represented community in astronomy and astrophysics, and (bottom) parenthood. Percentages which are not mentioned falls at $1\%$ (i.e. one participant).
• Figure 1: Outcome regarding the research expertise: (left) percentages of respondents, per category, who have felt unfairly absent from a list of co-authors, (center) percentages of respondents, per category, who declare having experienced disrespect (right) percentages of respondents, per category, who declare having experienced a situation of inappropriate behavior.
• Figure 2: The 'leaky pipeline', demonstrating the drop-out rates as a function of increasing career stage, is illustrated with data from the current survey. In addition to showing this real phenomenon in astronomy, it indicates a correlation between job position and gender in the interpretation of the outcomes of the survey later in this paper.
• Figure 3: Expertise recognition through inclusion in publications and projects, since January 2020: (left) percentage of people, per category, having felt unfairly absent from a co-author list, (center) percentages of people, per category, having felt unfairly present in a co-author list, (right) percentages of people, per category, having felt left out from a publication or project.
• Figure 4: Outcome of the questions regarding disrespect since January 2020, for both victims and witnesses: (left) percentages of people, per category, having experienced a situation of disrespect and their possible reaction, (center) percentages of victims of disrespect, per category, having been supported by other people, (right) percentages of people, per category, having witnessed a situation of disrespect and their possible reaction. Data including too small samples (less than 6 people) have been excluded from this graphics.