Female residents may have fewer research publications, lower H-indices vs. male residents
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Key takeaways:
- A similar percentage of male and female residents had first author publications.
- However, male residents had a significantly higher H-index and more first and non-first author publications.
Although male and female residents had similar rates of first author publication, results presented here showed female residents had fewer publications overall, lower H-indices and fewer first author publications.
“We are trying to look at this a little more and see if there are other effects that could be at play, but hopefully the future of this research dives more into how we can address these biases and look at ways to reevaluate academic success in between the two sexes,” Elizabeth Cho, MD, of Loyola University Medical Center, told Healio about results presented at the Women in Medicine Summit.
In an observational cross-sectional study, Cho and colleagues collected number of first and non-first author publications and H-indices for PGY-3 to PGY-5 residents attending 25 residency programs ranked highest for research output by Doximity. They determined the gender of each resident and senior author from institutional websites.
“Among 25 programs, we looked at what the research productivity scores of some of the more senior residents at those 25 programs, the point of which was to compare between the two sexes,” Cho said. “Was one group more productive in terms of that research measure and what were the main differences in terms of how much research they were both putting out?”
Among 532 residents, 169 were women and 363 were men. Results showed 78% of residents overall had at least one first author publication. Cho and colleagues found this did not significantly vary by gender, with 74.6% of female residents and 79.6% of male residents having first author publication.
“When we looked at the amount of first author publications between the two sexes, we found that there was no significant difference in terms of what percentage of each group of residents actually had a first author publication,” Cho said. “But then when we compared H-index, which is an objective measure or marker of research productivity, we found that male residents had a higher H-index. That was statistically significant.”
Compared with male residents, female residents also averaged fewer first (2.8 vs. 4.6) and non-first (6.4 vs. 10) author publications, according to results.
Cho added female residents were more likely to have published with female senior authors or female faculty, a result that has fueled further research.
“Our follow-up study is looking at comparing rates of female residents and rates of female faculty across each residency and then looking at how that might affect — or maybe it does not affect — the research productivity of both of those female residents and female faculty,” Cho said.
Reference:
Cho E, et al. JBJS Open Access. 2024;doi:10.2106/JBJS.OA.24.00061.
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Cho E, et al. Gender disparity in authorship among orthopaedic surgery residents. Presented at: Women in Medicine Summit; Sept. 13-14, 2024; Chicago.
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