Men present research ‘more favorably’ than women

Men were more likely than women to use positive terms when presenting their research findings, especially in high-impact journals, according to a study published in BMJ.

“Our study provides large scale evidence that men in academic medicine and the life sciences more broadly may present their own research more favorably than women, and that these differences may help to call attention to their research through higher downstream citations,” Marc J. Lerchenmueller, Dr rer pol, an assistant professor for technological innovation and management science at the University of Mannheim, Germany and colleagues wrote.

“These findings suggest that differences in the degree of self-promotion may contribute to the well documented gender gaps in academic medicine and in science more broadly,” they added.

Lerchenmueller and colleagues conducted a retrospective observational study of titles and abstracts indexed in PubMed and published between 2002 and 2017.

 

Men were more likely than women to use positive terms when presenting their research findings, especially in high-impact journals, according to a study published in BMJ.

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Researchers determined the gender of first and last authors and evaluated titles and abstracts for the presence of 25 positive words — including “novel,” “unprecedented” and “unique.”

A total of 101,720 clinical research articles and 6,246,112 general and life science articles were analyzed in the study. Of those, 12.1% of clinical research articles and 11.7% of life science articles used at least one of the 25 positive words.

Seventeen percent of clinical research articles had a woman as the first and last author, while 83% had a man as the first or last author.

Researchers found that use of positive words rose from 2002 to 2017, with an 80% increase among high-impact journals.

After a multivariable adjustment, researchers found that 10.9% of clinical research articles with women as the first and last authors used one of the positive words compared with 12.2% of articles with a man as the first or last author (relative difference = 12.3%; 95% CI, 5.7-18.9).

In high-impact journals, women were 21.4% less likely to use a positive word in their title or abstract.

On average, positive presentation was linked to a 9.4% increase in subsequent citations across all journals and a 13% increase in subsequent citations in higher impact journals.

The results were similar when general life science articles were included, suggesting that the observed gender disparities can be applied to broader samples.

To combat this gender disparity, Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, deputy chair of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan, and Julie K. Silver, MD, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study that “it may be useful for journal editors to work together to establish common standards and more transparent, shared expectations regarding the strength of evidence required to support the use of certain terms when framing research findings.”

They stressed that people who produce and consume scientific literature should be vigilant when assessing the quality of the literature, noting that “we must all work to counteract bias in order to optimally advance science,”– by Erin Michael

Disclosures: Jagsi and Silver report no relevant financial disclosures. Please see study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.