Under-Representation of Women on Dental Journal Editorial Boards

Abstract

IntroductionEach journal’s editorial and advisory board plays a critical role in resolving gender bias in the peer-review and publication process. Thus, this study aimed to quantify women’s participation in editorial and advisory boards of major dental journals. Gender data on editorial and advisory boards were extracted from major dental journals, which were then categorized by journal specialty focus. The gender of the editor-in-chief and associate editor-in-chief was noted to assess the effect of journal leadership on women’s participation in journal boards. For comparison purposes, data were also obtained regarding the percentage of women faculty for each dental specialty.ResultsOverall, in the major 69 dental journals, 14.8% of editorial board members were women. An one-way ANOVA analysis revealed statistically significant gender differences between journal specialty categories (p = 0.003) with some dental specialties’ journals demonstrating a relatively high participation of women as editorial board members. There was a significant positive correlation for various dental specialties between women’s representation in editorial and advisory boards and women in similar dental academic specialties (p = 0.02, r2 = 0.55). Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the presence of women in journal editorial leadership and the percentage of women serving as advisory board members (p = 0.03). Our results confirmed that the under-representation of women on dental journal editorial boards was significantly different between dental science specialties. When there were more women in journal editorial leadership positions, there was a higher participation of women as editorial and advisory board members. Journals should increase the numbers of women on editorial boards in order to secure diversity, improve publication quality and recognize women’s contribution to dental science.

Trends in gender composition on editorial boards in leading medicine, nursing, and pharmacy journals

“…This study was a pooled cross-sectional evaluation of 21 journal editorial boards from 1995 to 2016 that followed a similar methodology to previous investigations in this arena. [5][6][7][8] Journals for each discipline were chosen from the 2014 Journal Citation Reports database under "Medicine, General & Internal" (including medical specialties such as allergy, gastroenterology, etc. ), "Nursing," and "Pharmacology and Pharmacy" categories.…”

“…Based on previous investigations, women were considered to be the underrepresented gender across medicine and pharmacy journals. [5][6][7][8][9] Because previous investigations evaluating the proportion of men holding editorial board positions in nursing journals were not identified, men were considered the underrepresented gender across nursing journals based on the current proportion of men in the field of academic nursing. 4 Study outcomes included editorial board gender composition expressed as the proportion of all editorial board member…”

“…[5][6][7][8][9] One indicator of leadership in a scholarly field is membership on journal editorial boards; previous investigations have shown that women are underrepresented on editorial boards across many clinical health science journals. [5][6][7][8] In 2008, an investigation of the editorial board gender distributions of 16 major medical journals over a 35-year period found that approximately 20% of editorial board members and only 7% of editor-in-chief (EIC) appointments were held by women. 5 Results of a subsequent study of 60 major medical journals found that in 2011, women accounted for approximately 18% of all editorial board members and approximately 16% of EIC appointments.…”

Duties of Members of Editorial Team in Academic Journal

“…Необходимо активное вовлечение в процесс редактирования и научной коммуникации женщин, имеющих соответствующий уровень образования и ученые степени. Известно, что женщины слабо представлены в области медицины -17,5 %, эколо-гической биологии -16 % и стоматологии -14,8 % [5][6][7]. В определенной мере подобный гендерный дисбаланс зависит от низкой представленности женщин в определенных предметных категориях.…”

The Italian University Habilitation and the Challenge of Increasing the Representation of Women in Academia

“…Surveys from various countries show that the proportion of female undergraduate and graduate students has been the majority in many fields for many years now, but female senior researchers and professors are still often a small minority [4][5][6]. Various reasons have been suggested to be responsible for the persistence of a low representation of senior women in academia, e.g., the precarious employment conditions of most early-career researchers, recent University funding cuts, the lack of female role models in senior academic positions, as well as gender bias in (1) editorial boards of journals, (2) invited speakers at conferences, and (3) committees evaluating grant applications, hiring decisions and promotions [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”