School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America.
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0261209. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261209. eCollection 2022.
In December 2017, Lancet called for gender inequality investigations. Holding other factors constant, trends over time for significant author (i.e., first, second, last or any of these authors) publications were examined for the three highest-impact medical research journals (i.e., New England Journal of Medicine [NEJM], Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], and Lancet).
Using randomly sampled 2002-2019 MEDLINE original publications (n = 1,080; 20/year/journal), significant author-based and publication-based characteristics were extracted. Gender assignment used internet-based biographies, pronouns, first names, and photographs. Adjusting for author-specific characteristics and multiple publications per author, generalized estimating equations tested for first, second, and last significant author gender disparities.
Compared to 37.23% of 2002 - 2019 U.S. medical school full-time faculty that were women, women's first author publication rates (26.82% overall, 15.83% NEJM, 29.38% Lancet, and 35.39% JAMA; all p < 0.0001) were lower. No improvements over time occurred in women first authorship rates. Women first authors had lower Web of Science citation counts and co-authors/collaborating author counts, less frequently held M.D. or multiple doctoral-level degrees, less commonly published clinical trials or cardiovascular-related projects, but more commonly were North American-based and studied North American-based patients (all p < 0.05). Women second and last authors were similarly underrepresented. Compared to men, women first authors had lower multiple publication rates in these top journals (p < 0.001). Same gender first/last authors resulted in higher multiple publication rates within these top three journals (p < 0.001).
Since 2002, this authorship "gender disparity chasm" has been tolerated across all these top medical research journals. Despite Lancet's 2017 call to arms, furthermore, the author-based gender disparities have not changed for these top medical research journals - even in recent times. Co-author gender alignment may reduce future gender inequities, but this promising strategy requires further investigation.
2017 年 12 月，《柳叶刀》呼吁对性别不平等进行调查。在控制其他因素的情况下，考察了三大最具影响力的医学研究期刊（即《新英格兰医学杂志》[NEJM]、《美国医学会杂志》[JAMA]和《柳叶刀》）中具有显著作者（即第一、第二、最后或这些作者中的任何一位）的出版物随时间的趋势。
使用随机抽取的 2002-2019 年 MEDLINE 原始出版物（n=1080；每年 20 篇期刊），提取了基于显著作者和基于出版物的特征。性别分配使用了基于互联网的传记、代词、名字和照片。在调整了作者特定特征和每位作者的多篇出版物后，使用广义估计方程检验了第一、第二和最后一位显著作者的性别差异。
与 2002-2019 年美国医学院全职教师中 37.23%的女性相比，女性作为第一作者的发表率（总体为 26.82%，NEJM 为 15.83%，《柳叶刀》为 29.38%，JAMA 为 35.39%；均<0.0001）较低。女性作为第一作者的发表率并没有随着时间的推移而提高。女性第一作者的 Web of Science 引文计数和共同作者/合作作者计数较低，较少拥有医学博士或多个博士学位，较少发表临床试验或心血管相关项目，但更多的是北美为基地并研究北美为基地的患者（均<0.05）。女性第二和最后作者也同样代表性不足。与男性相比，女性第一作者在这些顶级期刊中的多出版物率较低（p<0.001）。同一性别第一/最后作者在这三个顶级期刊中的多出版物率较高（p<0.001）。
自 2002 年以来，这种作者“性别差距鸿沟”一直被容忍存在于所有这些顶级医学研究期刊中。此外，尽管《柳叶刀》在 2017 年呼吁采取行动，但这些顶级医学研究期刊的作者性别差异并没有改变——即使是在最近。共同作者的性别一致性可能会减少未来的性别不平等，但这种有希望的策略需要进一步研究。
