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Female authorship in GI increases, number of female senior authors falls short
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Although female authorship of original research in major journals has increased during the past 2 decades in the United States, the proportion of women in senior author positions remains “lower than expected,” according to new research data.
Aiming to determine the distribution of female first and senior authors of original gastroenterology research, Michelle T. Long, MD, from Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues retrospectively evaluated 2,275 original research articles and 455 editorials (3,792 authors) published in five most-read U.S. gastroenterology journals in 5-year intervals from 1992 to 2012. They were able to determine gender for 98.5% of authors, and they compared the distribution of women authors with the expected distribution based on the percentage of female academic GIs.
Overall, 18% of first authors were women, and 10.1% of senior authors were women. In 1992, female first authorship was 9.1 ± 2.9%, which rose to 29.3 ± 4.9% in 2012 (P trend < .0001). Senior authors were 4.8 ± 2.3% women in 1992 and rose to 14.5 ± 3.6% in 2012 (P < .0001). Over time, female first authors increased in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, American Journal of Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (P trend < .05), but not Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Female senior authors increased in all of the above-mentioned journals (P trend < .05) except Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. The proportion of female senior authors was less than expected based on the proportion of female academic gastroenterologists for all years except 1997 (P < .004). They also found that having a female first author was associated with having a female senior author (P < .0001).
“Future research should explore potential reasons for the lower rates of female authorship in the senior author position, and whether this relates to individual preferences or more systemic issues,” Long said in a press release.
“In this article, we can see an encouraging rise in the proportion of women authors that parallels the increase of women in academic gastroenterology; however, the productivity remains somewhat lower than what we might expect based on the current proportion of women academic gastroenterologists,” Colleen M. Schmitt, MD, MHS, from Galen Medical Group in Chattanooga, Tennessee, wrote in an accompanying editorial. “Given the status imbued and the benefits gained by authorship in building an academic career, the fitting conclusion is that these differences in productivity could be a contributing factor to a persistent gender gap in promotion. The numerous reasons for lower productivity among women might leave social scientists in despair of explanation.” – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosure: Long reports she is supported, in part, by the Boston University Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Please see the study for a full list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures. Schmitt reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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