Professors and associate professors in the Communication field in Spain (2000-2019). Distribution, promotion rates, transfer between universities, and endogamy

We present a descriptive statistical analysis of the academic career of professors and associate professors in the area of Communication in Spanish public universities during the period 2000-2019. Three phenomena related to academic careers in Communication are studied: first, the distribution of positions by category, sex, and years; second, promotion paths; third, the flows between universities, which show a phenomenon of endogamy. To this end, we identified the appointments of professors and associate professors in the areas of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication and Advertising in the Boletin oficial del Estado (the Spanish official gazette). Our analysis provides an understanding of the role of universities as institutions that hire and train faculty, and the flow of faculty among them. The results show that the recruitment of professors and associate professors in the 20 years studied is irregular in terms of distribution, parity, and allocation of positions over time. In turn, successive legislation has generated a system that reduces faculty mobility and favors endogamy.