They describe how they constructed their measure of “team quality.” They took the first principal component of five measures: publications in top journals, self

They describe how they constructed their measure of “team quality.” They took the first principal component of five measures: publications in top journals, self-assessed expertise in the literature, experience with big data, academic seniority, and team size. These sound fairly reasonable to me. Publishing in the top journals is easier with the right connections which makes the first measure questionable. Tenure is also harder to achieve for women which makes the fourth measure questionable. But even if these measures are driven by connections and gender norms, they capture something that is interesting to study further if there’s an association found.