‘Deliberate efforts’ needed to fix imbalance in female vs. male senior authors in research
Key takeaways:
- The percentage of women as senior authors on cancer research papers between 2009 and 2019 remained low.
- Significant variations occurred across countries in the proportion of female first and last authors.
Global progress in women as senior authors in cancer research remains modest compared with men, according to research published in BMJ Oncology.
Researchers recommend “more deliberate efforts” to develop and implement “evidence-informed” policies that encourage and support early-career researchers in general, and female researchers in particular.
Asymmetries
“Our recent Lancet commission on women, power and cancer outlined asymmetries in how women interact with health systems, including the female oncology workforce in academia,” Miriam Mutebi, MD, MSc, FACS, consultant breast oncologist, told Healio. “While women comprise the majority of the health care workforce, women have traditionally been underrepresented in leadership in academia, whether through positions held, such as department heads or in their academic research output. With the increase of women in the oncology workforce in many settings, we undertook this study to see if any gains had been made over a 10-year period.”
Research is an essential component of cancer control plans that can advise strategy, she continued.
“It is important to have a diverse pool of researchers who can address research questions along the entire patient journey,” Mutebi said. “More female researchers tend to explore questions that encompass both the clinical and socio-cultural/psychological aspects of cancer care, which helps to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the lived experience of patients and could provide critical insights to optimize cancer care delivery. Advancing diversity and equity in research leadership and authorship is essential to address the complex challenges of cancer globally.”
The cross-sectional review included global research output data categorized by sex across 56 countries between 2009 and 2019.
Overall, the study included 66,802 studies published in 2009 and 144,318 studies published in 2019.
Remaining imbalance
Results showed 37.2% of cancer studies published in 2009 included females as first authors, which increased to 41.6% in 2019. The percentage of females as last authors increased from 23.3% in 2009 to 29.4% in 2019. This corresponded to a 26% increase in females as first authors and a 12% increase in females as last authors between the two time periods.
Results also showed Eastern and Southern Europe and Latin American countries as the top performing countries in terms of female and male parity regarding first or last authorship. Researchers identified the highest proportions of female first and last authors between 2009 and 2019 in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Moreover, results showed a higher likelihood for females to publish in lower impact journals and a lower likelihood to be cited compared with males.
“Surprisingly, women in higher income settings with potentially more access to resources and support, still performed poorly,” Mutebi said. “This suggests that the reasons behind lack of academic progression and research output may be a lot more nuanced and perhaps context specific.”
Researchers reported limitations of the study, including the potential for under-representation of certain groups especially in the East Asian region. Additionally, researchers could not explore funding sources, which may not necessarily reflect trends in low- to middle-income countries.
Deliberate efforts needed
“More research is needed into how to enhance the regional/country opportunities to support all health workers in academia, to increase their collective research output and in how to mitigate barriers to research output and leadership, especially for female researchers,” Mutebi told Healio. “In line with recommendations from The Lancet commission, the authors would like to champion the development of gender-responsive policies that support and enhance funding for oncology research, and facilitate their implementation in order to evaluate the overall impact of these to improving health systems and, ultimately, enhance patient care.”
References:
- Ginsburg O, et al. Lancet. 2023;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01701-4.
- Mutebi M, et al. BMJ Oncol. 2024;doi:10.1136/bmjonc-2023-000200.
For more information:
Miriam Mutebi, MD, MSc, FACS, can be reached at miriam.mutebi@aku.edu.
Collapse
Read more about