Division of Clinical Epidemiology, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Department of Health and Community Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
BMJ. 2021 Oct 6;375:n2288. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n2288.
To describe prominent authorship positions held by women and the overall percentage of women co-authoring manuscripts submitted during the covid-19 pandemic compared with the previous two years.
Cross sectional study.
Nine specialist and two large general medical journals.
Authors of research manuscripts submitted between 1 January 2018 and 31 May 2021.
Primary outcome: first author's gender.
last and corresponding authors' gender; number (percentage) of women on authorship byline in "pre-pandemic" period (1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019) and in "covid-19" and "non-covid-19" manuscripts during pandemic.
A total of 63 259 manuscripts were included. The number of female first, last, and corresponding authors respectively were 1313 (37.1%), 996 (27.9%), and 1119 (31.1%) for covid-19 manuscripts (lowest values in Jan-May 2020: 230 (29.4%), 165 (21.1%), and 185 (22.9%)), compared with 8583 (44.9%), 6118 (31.2%), and 7273 (37.3%) for pandemic non-covid-19 manuscripts and 12 724 (46.0%), 8923 (31.4%), and 10 981 (38.9%) for pre-pandemic manuscripts. The adjusted odds ratio of having a female first author in covid-19 manuscripts was <1.00 in all groups (P<0.001) compared with pre-pandemic (lowest in Jan-May 2020: 0.55, 98.75% confidence interval 0.43 to 0.70). The adjusted odds ratio of having a woman as last or corresponding author was significantly lower for covid-19 manuscripts in all time periods (except for the two most recent periods for last author) compared with pre-pandemic (lowest values in Jan-May 2020: 0.74 (0.57 to 0.97) for last and 0.61 (0.49 to 0.77) for corresponding author). The odds ratios for pandemic non-covid-19 manuscripts were not significantly different compared with pre-pandemic manuscripts. The median percentage of female authors on the byline was lower for covid-19 manuscripts (28.6% in Jan-May 2020) compared with pre-pandemic (36.4%) and non-covid-19 pandemic manuscripts (33.3% in Jan-May 2020). Gender disparities in all prominent authorship positions and the proportion of women authors on the byline narrowed in the most recent period (Feb-May 2021) compared with the early pandemic period (Jan-May 2020) and were very similar to values observed for pre-pandemic manuscripts.
Women have been underrepresented as co-authors and in prominent authorship positions in covid-19 research, and this gender disparity needs to be corrected by those involved in academic promotion and awarding of research grants. Women attained some prominent authorship positions equally or more frequently than before the pandemic on non-covid-19 related manuscripts submitted at some time points during the pandemic.
描述在新冠疫情期间，与前两年相比，女性担任的主要作者职位以及共同撰写手稿的女性总体比例。
横断面研究。
9 种专科和 2 种大型综合医学期刊。
2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2021 年 5 月 31 日期间提交的研究手稿的作者。
主要结果：第一作者的性别。
最后和相应作者的性别；在“大流行前”（2018 年 1 月至 2019 年 12 月 31 日）和大流行期间的“新冠”和“非新冠”手稿中署名作者的数量（百分比）。
共纳入 63259 篇手稿。在新冠疫情期间，女性第一、最后和相应作者的数量分别为 1313（37.1%）、996（27.9%）和 1119（31.1%）（2020 年 1 月至 5 月最低值：230（29.4%）、165（21.1%）和 185（22.9%）），与大流行非新冠疫情期间的 8583（44.9%）、6118（31.2%）和 7273（37.3%）以及大流行前的 12724（46.0%）、8923（31.4%）和 10981（38.9%）相比。在所有组中，新冠疫情期间女性担任第一作者的调整优势比均<1.00（P<0.001），与大流行前相比（2020 年 1 月至 5 月最低值：0.55，98.75%置信区间 0.43 至 0.70）。在所有时期（最后作者的最近两个时期除外），与大流行前相比，新冠疫情期间女性担任最后或相应作者的调整优势比均显著降低（2020 年 1 月至 5 月最低值：最后作者 0.74（0.57 至 0.97），相应作者 0.61（0.49 至 0.77））。与大流行前相比，大流行非新冠疫情期间的手稿没有显著差异。在新冠疫情期间，署名作者中的女性比例中位数（2020 年 1 月至 5 月为 28.6%）低于大流行前（36.4%）和大流行非新冠疫情期间的手稿（2020 年 1 月至 5 月为 33.3%）。在最近时期（2021 年 2 月至 5 月），与大流行早期（2020 年 1 月至 5 月）相比，所有主要作者职位和署名作者中女性的性别差异缩小，并且与大流行前的手稿非常相似。
在新冠疫情研究中，女性作为合著者和主要作者的比例较低，这一性别差距需要由参与学术晋升和授予研究经费的人来纠正。在大流行期间的某些时间点提交的与非新冠相关的手稿中，女性在某些主要作者职位上的平等或更频繁地获得了职位，这与大流行前的情况相似。
