A Decade of Global Skull Base Researchers: Authorship Trends from 3,295 Abstracts in the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base

Abstract

Objective: The North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) multidisciplinary annual conference hosts skull base researchers from across the globe. We hypothesized that the work presented at the NASBS annual conference would reveal diverse authorship teams in terms of specialty and geography. Methods: In this retrospective review, abstracts presented at the NASBS annual meeting and subsequently published in the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base between 01/01/2011 and 12/31/2020 were collected. Variables extracted included year, type of presentation, and author names and affiliations. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS V23.0 with p-values < 0.05 considered significant. Geographic heat maps were created to assess author distribution, and a network analysis was performed to display authorship collaboration between geographic regions. <b>Results:</b> Of 3,312 published abstracts, 731 (22.1%) had an author with an affiliation outside of the United States. Fifty-seven distinct countries were represented. 324 abstracts (9.8%) had authorship teams representing at least 2 different countries. The top five USA states by abstract representation were Pennsylvania, California, New York, Ohio, and Minnesota. A majority of authors reported neurosurgery affiliations (56.7% first authors, 53.2% last authors), closely followed by otolaryngology (39.1% first authors, 41.5% last authors). No solo authors and very few (3.3%) of the first authors reported a departmental affiliation outside of otolaryngology or neurosurgery. <b>Conclusions:</b> Authors from many countries disseminate their work through poster and oral presentations at the NASBS annual meeting. 10% of abstracts were the product of international collaboration. Most authors were affiliated with a neurosurgery or otolaryngology department.

A Decade of Global Skull Base Researchers: Gender Data from over 2,700 Abstract Authors in the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base

“…Complete methods of this retrospective review are described in the manuscript cited here. 13 In brief, both oral and poster abstracts which were presented at the NASBS annual meeting between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2020 were extracted from the publicly available JNLS-B Web site. Year of publication, first and last author names and affiliation data, and total author number per abstract were collected.…”

“…Those authors with dual appointments were searched via Google to determine primary appointment; those with dual location appointments were coded as having the singular first location listed. 13 Abstracts where either the first or last authors had no affiliation listed were excluded, condensing the sample from 3,328 abstracts to 3,295. The genderize.io Web application programming interface (API) was utilized to determine authorship gender.…”

“…The proportion of female authors was determined by utilizing our data regarding the total number of authors present per state/territory/province/country. 13 Only those with genders successfully assigned were included. A minority of first and last authors had departmental affiliations listed; a subgroup analysis was performed of these authors.…”

“…This work is part of a larger project in which our team studied the NASBS annual conference. 13 The objective of this current analysis is to evaluate whether gender differences exist in skull base research, and to assess how this varies geographically. In accordance with past studies on demographic trends of female neurosurgeons and otolaryngologists, 6,[8][9][10] we hypothesize that the minority of authors contributing to the NASBS academic conference will be female with even larger gender disparities in neurosurgery than in otolaryngology.…”

“…Importantly, even though membership includes individuals from all over the world, 12 we expect this analysis will likely demonstrate disproportionate contributions from North American researchers of both genders. 13…”