Trends in gender of authors of original research in oncology among major medical journals: a retrospective bibliometric study
Metadatos
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Lee, Shing Fung; Redondo Sánchez, Daniel; Sánchez Pérez, María José; Luque Fernández, Miguel ÁngelEditorial
BMJ
Materia
Adult oncology Epidemiology Statistics & research methods
Date
2021-10-18Referencia bibliográfica
Lee SF... [et al.]. Trends in gender of authors of original research in oncology among major medical journals: a retrospective bibliometric study. BMJ Open 2021;11:e046618. doi:[10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046618]
Patrocinador
Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (Instituto de Salud Carlos III -ISCIII) CP17/00206--EU--FEDERRésumé
Objective We evaluated the temporal trend in gender
ratios of first and last authors in the field of oncological
research published in major general medical and oncology
journals and examined the gender pattern in coauthorship.
Design We conducted a retrospective study in PubMed
using the R package RISmed. We retrieved original
research articles published in four general medical
journals and six oncology specialty journals. These journals
were selected based on their impact factors and popularity
among oncologists. We identified the names of first and
last authors from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2019.
The gender of the authors was identified and validated
using the Gender API database (https:// gender-api. com/).
Primary and secondary outcome measures The
percentages of first and last authors by gender and the
gender ratios (male to female) and temporal trends in
gender ratios of first and last authors were determined.
Results We identified 34 624 research articles, in which
32 452 had the gender of both first and last authors
identified. Among these 11 650 (33.6%) had women as
the first author and 7908 (22.8%) as the last author,
respectively. The proportion of female first and last authors
increased from 26.6% and 16.2% in 2002, to 32.9%
and 27.5% in 2019, respectively. However, the gender
ratio (male to female) of first and last authors decreased
by 1.5% and 2.6% per year, respectively, which were
statistically significant (first author: incidence rate ratio
(IRR) 0.98, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.00; last author: IRR 0.97,
95% CI 0.96 to 0.99). Male first and last authorship was
the most common combination. Male–female and female–
female pairs increased by 2.0% and 5.0%, respectively
(IRR 1.02, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.03 and IRR 1.05, 95% CI 1.04
to 1.06, respectively).
Conclusions The continued under-representation
of
women means that more efforts to address parity for
advancement of women in academic oncology are needed.