Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida.
Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2023 Feb;20(2):215-225. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202203-277OC.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected women more than men and may influence the publication of non-COVID-19 research. To evaluate whether the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with changes in manuscript acceptance rates among pulmonary/critical care journals and sex-based disparities in these rates. We analyzed first, senior, and corresponding author sex (female vs. male, identified by matching first names in a validated Genderize database) of manuscripts submitted to four pulmonary/critical care journals between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020. We constructed interrupted time series regression models to evaluate whether the proportion of female first and senior authors of non-COVID-19 original research manuscripts changed with the pandemic. Next, we performed multivariable logistic regressions to evaluate the association of author sex with acceptance of original research manuscripts. Among 8,332 original research submissions, women represented 39.9% and 28.3% of first and senior authors, respectively. We found no change in the proportion of female first or senior authors of non-COVID-19 or COVID-19 submitted research manuscripts during the COVID-19 era. Non-COVID-19 manuscripts submitted during the COVID-19 era had reduced odds of acceptance, regardless of author sex (first author adjusted OR [aOR], 0.46 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.36-0.59]; senior author aOR, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.37-0.57]). Female senior authorship was associated with decreased acceptance of non-COVID-19 research manuscripts (crude rates, 14.4% [male] vs. 13.2% [female]; aOR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.71-0.99]). Although female author submissions were not disproportionately influenced by COVID-19, we found evidence suggesting sex disparities in manuscript acceptance rates. Journals may need to consider strategies to reduce this disparity, and academic institutions may need to factor our findings, including lower acceptance rates for non-COVID-19 manuscripts, into promotion decisions.
冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行对女性的影响大于男性，并且可能影响非 COVID-19 研究的发表。为了评估 COVID-19 大流行是否与肺/重症监护期刊的手稿接受率变化以及这些比率的性别差异相关。我们分析了 2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2020 年 12 月 31 日期间向四本肺/重症监护期刊提交的手稿的第一作者、资深作者和通讯作者的性别（女性与男性，通过在经过验证的 Genderize 数据库中匹配名字来确定）。我们构建了中断时间序列回归模型，以评估非 COVID-19 原始研究手稿中女性第一作者和资深作者的比例是否随大流行而变化。接下来，我们进行了多变量逻辑回归，以评估作者性别与接受原始研究手稿的关联。在 8332 份原始研究投稿中，女性分别占非 COVID-19 和 COVID-19 原始研究手稿的第一作者和资深作者的 39.9%和 28.3%。我们没有发现 COVID-19 时代非 COVID-19 提交的研究手稿中女性第一作者或资深作者的比例发生变化。无论作者性别如何，COVID-19 时代提交的非 COVID-19 手稿接受的可能性都降低（第一作者调整后的 OR [aOR]，0.46 [95%置信区间（CI），0.36-0.59]；资深作者 aOR，0.46 [95% CI，0.37-0.57]）。女性资深作者身份与非 COVID-19 研究手稿的接受率降低有关（原始率，14.4%[男性]与 13.2%[女性]；aOR，0.84 [95% CI，0.71-0.99]）。尽管女性作者的投稿没有受到 COVID-19 的不成比例影响，但我们有证据表明，手稿接受率存在性别差异。期刊可能需要考虑采取策略来减少这种差异，并且学术机构可能需要将我们的发现（包括非 COVID-19 手稿接受率较低）纳入晋升决策中。
