Gender Authorship Trends of Plastic Surgery Research in the United States

Abstract

The increase in representation of female authors in plastic surgery is encouraging but lags behind advances in other specialties. Understanding reasons for these trends may help improve gender equity in academic plastic surgery.

Gender equity imbalance in electrocardiology: A call to action

“…Using academic productivity and international society leadership and board constituents as surrogate markers of gender equity, the results of this study suggest that electrocardiology is a male‐dominated field. Authorship in both JECG and ANE followed the same trends in male dominance, which is in keeping with previous research in academic medicine (Freund et al., ; Raj et al., ; Sidhu et al., ; Silvestre et al., ).…”

“…Although there is an increased number of females entering the medical field, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles, senior appointments (Association of American Medical Colleges, ), and also have lower rates of academic productivity (Freund et al., ). Many studies have identified an imbalance in publication with respect to genders (Freund et al., ; Raj et al., ; Sidhu et al., ; Silvestre, Wu, Lin, & Serletti, ). It is thought that decreased academic productivity translates into a reduced opportunity to attain leadership appointments or higher academic ranks (Reed, Enders, Lindor, McClees, & Lindor, ).…”

“…If the gender could not be assigned by direct visualization, an extensive Google search (Mountain View, CA, USA) was conducted where biographies and or photos revealing the gender was identified. Previous research assessing gender authorship also used similar methodology (Silvestre et al., ).…”

State of Gender Diversity and Equity Policies within Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Canada

“…Of note, PRS has the fewest number of female authors compared with all other specialties, with only 13% of authors publishing in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery being female. 32 In addition, female medical trainees may be deterred from a career in surgery due to stigma of the “surgical personality”, a primarily androcentric perception of surgery. 33 These concerns are well-founded, given that a female who chooses a career in surgery is 10 times more likely to experience gender discrimination—which will result in a negative impact on her professional opportunities 6 —than her male colleagues.…”

Comparison of Editor, Reviewer, and Author Demographics in The Journal of Hand Surgery

“…Authors were less likely to be from the United States compared with editors and reviewers (P < .001). Editors were found to have a higher h-index (16) compared with reviewers (14) and authors (12), and these results were statistically significant (P ¼.001). Differences in mean publications and citations among the 3 groups were not statistically significant (Table 1).…”