Gender disparities in high-quality dermatology research: a descriptive bibliometric study on scientific authorships

Abstract

ObjectiveThe present study aims to elucidate the state of gender equality in high-quality dermatological research by analysing the representation of female authorships from January 2008 to May 2017.DesignRetrospective, descriptive study.Setting113 189 male and female authorships from 23 373 research articles published in 23 dermatological Q1 journals were analysed with the aid of the Gendermetrics Platform.Results43.0% of all authorships and 50.2% of the firstauthorships, 43.7% of the coauthorships and 33.1% of the last authorships are held by women. The corresponding female-to-male ORs are 1.41 (95% CI 1.37 to 1.45) for first authorships, 1.07 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.10) for coauthorships and 0.60 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.62) for last authorships. The annual growth rates are 1.74% overall and 1.45% for first authorships, 1.53% for coauthorships and 2.97% for last authorships. Women are slightly under-represented at prestigious authorships compared with men (Prestige Index=−0.11). The under-representation remains stable in highly competitive articles attracting the highest citation rates, namely, articles with many authors and articles that were published in highest-impact journals. Multiauthor articles with male key authors are only slightly more frequently cited than those with female key authors. Women publish slightly fewer papers compared with men (47.2% women hold 43.0% of the authorships). At the level of individual journals, there is a high degree of uniformity in gender-specific authorship odds. By contrast, distinct differences at country level were revealed. The prognosis for the next decades forecasts a consecutive harmonisation of authorship odds between the two genders.ConclusionsIn high-quality dermatological research, the integration of female scholars is advanced as compared with other medical disciplines. A gender gap consists mainly in the form of a career dichotomy, with many female early career researchers and few women in academic leadership positions. However, this gender gap has been narrowed in the last decade and will likely be further reduced in the future.

A retrospective analysis of gender parity in scientific authorship in a biomedical research centre

“…Thirdly, the analysis highlights gender inequity with female underrepresentation in prestigious authorship positions compared to male in biomedical research. This is consistent with other fields including: epilepsy, lung cancer, dermatology, eating disorders and in medicine in general[17,19,41–43].…”

Gender and race trends in academic rank of dermatologists at top U.S. institutions: A cross-sectional study

“…Despite an increase in the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities in the dermatology workforce over the last few decades, gender and racial differences persist. Studies have shown inequities in research funding, leadership and speaking opportunities, journal editorial boards, and compensation ( Bendels et al, 2018 , Flaten et al, 2019 , Lobl et al, 2020 , Wu and Lipner, 2019 ). In January 2020, the Association of American Medical Colleges put out a call to action on gender equality in medicine, noting gender parity at the instructor level but that the percentage of female faculty declines with each subsequent higher rank across the fields of medicine ( Association of American Medical Colleges, 2020 ).…”

Gender workforce disparities―an ethical imperative

“…Only 23.5% of chairs of dermatology departments were women as of 2016 (Shi et al, 2017). Women are also underrepresented as last authors on manuscripts in dermatology journals (Bendels et al, 2018). A recent report revealed serious gaps for women in select recognition awards given to dermatologists by the American Academy of Dermatology (Silver et al, 2017).…”