Scientific consensus, the law, and same sex parenting outcomes

• We demonstrate how citation networks can evaluate scientific consensus.
• Estimating consensus requires a dynamic temporal conceptualization.
• Consensus on outcomes for children of same-sex parents arose by the late 1990s.
• Our estimation procedure is relatively robust to noise in the data.
• That consensus reflects “no differences” on most examined outcomes.

While the US Supreme Court was considering two related cases involving the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, one major question informing that decision was whether scientific research had achieved consensus regarding how children of same-sex couples fare. Determining the extent of consensus has become a key aspect of how social science evidence and testimony is accepted by the courts. Here, we show how a method of analyzing temporal patterns in citation networks can be used to assess the state of social scientific literature as a means to inform just such a question. Patterns of clustering within these citation networks reveal whether and when consensus arises within a scientific field. We find that the literature on outcomes for children of same-sex parents is marked by scientific consensus that they experience “no differences” compared to children from other parental configurations.