Gender disparity in critical care publications: a novel Female First Author Index

Annals of Intensive Care

Sowmya Chary¹  Djøra I. Soeteman²  Karin Amrein³  Kenneth B. Christopher⁴  Sangeeta Mehta⁵ 

[1]Biogen, Inc., 225 Binney St, 02142, Cambridge, MA, USA

[2]Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, 02115, Boston, MA, USA

[3]Division of Endocrinology and Diabetology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 15, 8036, Graz, Austria

[4]Division of Renal Medicine, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, MRB 418, 75 Francis Street, 02115, Boston, MA, USA

[5]Sinai Health System, and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto, 600 University Ave, M5G 1X5, Toronto, ON, Canada

关键词: Gender;    Authorship;    Critical care;    Gender bias;    Gender parity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13613-021-00889-3

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundBibliometric analyses show gender bias against women in scientific publications and citations. We hypothesized that a metric of an individual senior author’s inclusivity of women as first authors in critical care publications would predict gender inequality.MethodsUsing PubMed and Web of Science, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of original research publications in critical care from 2008 to 2018 in 11 specialty and general journals. Gender for first and senior authors was assigned by a gender determination application, and manually if needed. For all senior authors we defined the novel Female First Author Index (FFA-index) = #Female first authors in publications by an individual senior author/Total # publications by that senior author. We produced a novel interactive web-based application using the R package Shiny to increase potential utilization of the FFA-index.ResultsOf 7370 publications, 30.4% had female first authors and 15.5% had female senior authors. After adjustment for impact factor, journal, year of publication, number of authors, country, and gender determination accuracy, female senior authorship was associated with a 1.9-fold increase in female first authorship [OR = 1.85 (95% CI 1.62, 2.11); p < 0.001] compared with male senior authorship. The mean (SD) FFA-index for all individual senior authors was 30.5 (42.9); with a significant difference in FFA-index between male and female senior authors (27.6 versus 42.5, respectively; p < 0.001). The interactive web-based application (FFA-index App) produces the same FFA-index output as our study results.ConclusionsFemale representation at prominent authorship positions in critical care publications is still far from achieving gender parity. By creating an authorship index score, we propose a frame of reference for the advancement of female first authorship.

【 授权许可】

CC BY