Correlation between the drivers of academic success
The high international disparity in academic success, particularly
between the Global North and Global South, is mainly due to the
accumulation of differences in T, L, and N (Fig. 2b).
Unsurprisingly, there is a positive correlation between T,L, and N (Fig. 2c) where researchers in wealthy countries
often have better English proficiency and much less restrictions to
travel worldwide than researchers in poor countries. This positive
association generates an academic system where researchers “either have
it all or have nothing”. Therefore, a global intersectionality
framework of the four drivers of academic success reveals that
researchers from the Global South are limited by T , L ,N and D, but those from the Global North are mostly
affected by D (Fig. 2d). Hence, to succeed in academia,
researchers from unprivileged backgrounds must overcompensate by
spending extra efforts and money learning English at a late age, seeking
independent training, finding access to journals and books, carrying out
research with limited to no funding and adequate infrastructure, and
moving to countries in the Global North with cumbersome difficulties.
The realization that most determinants of T, L, N and Dare beyond the control of individual students and scientists is the
first step towards an exhaustive comprehension of EDI.