Female faculty members at US research universities have fewer co-authors than do men over the entirety of their career, according to a study published last month (X. H. T. Zeng et al. PLoS Biol. 14, e1002573; 2016). The study says that on average, women have shorter careers and lower publication rates, both of which contribute to the difference in their number of co-authors. Analysing the publication records of 3,980 faculty members across six disciplines in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the authors found that women are more open than are men to new collaborations, a career strategy that has been found to produce higher-impact research. Yet the study also found gender differences in some disciplines. For example, female molecular biologists typically work in smaller teams than do their male counterparts. Looking specifically at the sub-field of genomics, which tends to produce work conducted by large teams, the authors also found that female scientists are under-represented as co-authors.