Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; School of Medicine, Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil.
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.
Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2022 Winter;34(4):1233-1235. doi: 10.1053/j.semtcvs.2021.08.015. Epub 2021 Aug 26.
Editorial board positions are prestigious and have important implications as gatekeepers for the advancement of academic surgeons. We assessed the composition of editorial boards of cardiothoracic surgery journals to identify female and low- and middle-income country (LMIC) representation. Journals listed as "Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems" in the 2019 InCites Journal Citation Reports (JCR) directory by Clarivate Analytics were manually searched to identify journals pertaining to cardiothoracic surgery. Editorial boards for each journal were reviewed as available on journal websites, assessing for sex and country income group (high-income country vs. LMIC) of editorial board members. Descriptive statistics were performed, and differences were assessed through t tests and correlations using STATA version 14. Twenty-two cardiothoracic journals were identified, of which 16 were listed on JCR and 6 were sister journals. A total of 1,970 editorial board members were identified, of whom 206 (10.5%) were female and 103 (5.2%) from LMICs (each, p < 0.001). Female representation varied between 0% and 29.7% across journals. There were 391 associate and deputy editors, 62 (15.9%) were female and 15 (3.8%) from LMICs (each, p < 0.001). Only 1 (4.5%) of the 22 journals had a female Editor-in-Chief. A total of 15 LMICs were represented: Brazil (56 members), China (11 members), and India (11 members). LMIC representation varied between 0% and 76.6% (Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery), with the second highest representation being only 16.33%. After excluding the Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery (the only country-specific journal), LMIC representation was only 3.7% on editorial boards. The intersection between female sex and LMIC origin was found in only three editorial board members. A statistically significant positive correlation was seen between percentage of females in editorial boards and journal impact factor (r= 0.769, p < 0.001). No correlation was seen between percentage of LMIC in boards and impact factor (r = -0.306, p = 0.250). Our findings suggest editorial boards of cardiothoracic surgery journals remain highly imbalanced in terms of sex and country income group. Disparities in editorial boards may further result in less inclusive review processes, which may lead to fewer publications and slower academic advancement by underrepresented groups. Societies should partake in active assessment and reporting of disparities across their editorial boards as well as assessment of implicit biases and barriers impeding female and LMIC researchers from joining their boards.
编辑委员会职位享有盛誉，对学术外科医生的发展具有重要意义。我们评估了心胸外科杂志编辑委员会的组成，以确定女性和中低收入国家（LMIC）的代表情况。在 Clarivate Analytics 的 2019 年 InCites 期刊引证报告（JCR）目录中列为“心脏和心血管系统”的期刊通过手动搜索进行了识别，以确定与心胸外科相关的期刊。在期刊网站上审查了每个期刊的编辑委员会，评估了编辑委员会成员的性别和国家收入组（高收入国家与 LMIC）。使用 STATA 版本 14 进行了描述性统计分析，并通过 t 检验和相关性分析评估了差异。确定了 22 种心胸外科期刊，其中 16 种在 JCR 中列出，6 种是姊妹期刊。确定了 1970 名编辑委员会成员，其中 206 名（10.5%）是女性，103 名（5.2%）来自 LMIC（均，p < 0.001）。女性代表比例在期刊之间差异为 0%至 29.7%。有 391 名副编辑和副主编，其中 62 名（15.9%）是女性，15 名（3.8%）来自 LMIC（均，p < 0.001）。22 种期刊中只有 1 种（4.5%）有女性主编。共有 15 个 LMIC 代表：巴西（56 名成员）、中国（11 名成员）和印度（11 名成员）。LMIC 的代表比例在 0%至 76.6%（巴西心血管外科杂志）之间变化，第二高的比例仅为 16.33%。排除巴西心血管外科杂志（唯一的国家特定杂志）后，编辑委员会的 LMIC 代表仅为 3.7%。只有三名编辑委员会成员具有女性性别和 LMIC 出身的交集。在编辑委员会中女性比例与期刊影响因子之间存在显著正相关（r=0.769，p < 0.001）。在董事会中 LMIC 的比例与影响因素之间没有相关性（r = -0.306，p = 0.250）。我们的研究结果表明，心胸外科杂志的编辑委员会在性别和国家收入组方面仍然严重失衡。编辑委员会的差异可能会进一步导致包容性审查过程不足，从而导致代表性不足的群体的出版物和学术进步速度较慢。各协会应积极评估和报告其编辑委员会中的差异，并评估阻碍女性和 LMIC 研究人员加入其委员会的隐性偏见和障碍。
