Changing Faces of Authorship: A Study of Gender, Race, Regional Disparities in Gastroenterology/Hepatology-related RCTs. A Two Decade Analysis (2000-2022)

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate gender, racial, ethnic, and regional disparities in first and senior authorship positions in gastroenterology/hepatology-related randomised controlled trials (RCT).DesignRetrospective bibliometric analysis of PubMed-indexed RCTs published between January 2000 to December 2022 in leading journals with an impact factor of at least five.Results943 RCTs met our inclusion criteria, providing a participant pool of 301 female (15.96%) and 1,585 male (84.04%) authors from 37 countries (70% high-income countries). Despite a significant increase in the proportion of female authors in first and senior authorship positions between 2000 and 2022 (p<0.001), females were grossly underrepresented in both authorship positions, with a male-to-female ratio of 4.45 and 6.37, respectively. The male-to-female ratio was highest among Asian authors (7.79) than among White (4.22), Hispanic (1.44), and Black (1) authors in the first authorship position. In contrast, the male-to-female ratio was similar for Asian (6.2) and White (6.67) authors in the senior authorship position, with a low underlying frequency of Hispanic and Black female authors. There were statistically significant differences in gender distribution for first authorship at the country level (p=0.0018). Binary logistic regression analysis showed significant positive effects of the senior author being a female (β=1.124, p<0.001) and the senior author having PhD qualification (β=0.753, p=0.021) on female first authorship.ConclusionDespite significant improvements in gender, racial and ethnic representation in first and senior authorship of gastroenterology/hepatology-related RCTs published in high-impact journals, progress toward parity remains slow. Targeted interventions to improve author diversity are warranted.

A Systematic Review of Gender Disparity in the Authorship of Clinical Trials and Clinical Practice Guidelines in Various Medicine Subspecialties

“…In addition, some studies have observed an association between gender and the choice of specialization, which may reduce the proportion of women in certain specialties [26][27], affecting their representation in research output Over the past decade, there has been tremendous interest in documenting the impact of these factors on authorship trends using bibliometric methodology [28]. For instance, studies demonstrate that females are severely underrepresented in the authorship of research articles [1][2][3], randomized controlled trials (RCTs) [29][30], clinical practice guidelines [31], clinical case reports [32], invited commentaries [33], and commissioned articles [34].…”