Toney Christian, Shroyer Mathis Michelle, Martin Colin
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama.
Pediatric Gastroenterology, Division of Pediatric Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama.
J Surg Res. 2023 Jun;286:104-109. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2022.11.057. Epub 2023 Feb 16.
Recent social justice movements have highlighted the need for improved diversity and inclusion. These movements have emphasized the need for inclusivity of all genders and races in all sectors including surgical editorial boards. There is currently not an established, standardized method to assess the gender, racial, and ethnic makeup of surgical editorial board rosters, yet artificial intelligence is a method that can be utilized to determine gender and race in an unbiased manner. The aim of the present study is to determine if recent social justice movements correlate with an increase in diversity-themed articles published and if there is an increase in the gender and racial makeup of surgical editorial boards determined by artificial intelligence software.
Impact factor was used to assess and rank highly regarded general surgery journals. The website of each of these journals was examined for pledges of diversity in their mission statements and core beliefs of conduct. To determine the number of diversity-themed articles that were published during 2016 and 2021, each surgical journal was analyzed for diversity-themed articles using 10 specific keywords in PubMed. To determine the racial and gender makeup of editorial boards in 2016 and 2021, we obtained the current and the 2016 editorial board roster. Roster member images were collected from academic institutional websites. Betaface facial recognition software was used to assess the images. The software assigned the gender, race and ethnicity of the image supplied. Betaface results were analyzed using a Chi Square Test of Independence.
We analyzed 17 surgical journals. Only four of 17 journals were found to have diversity pledges on their website. For diversity themed publications, 1% of articles in 2016 and 2.7% in 2021 were published specifically about diversity. There was a significant increase in the amount of diversity articles/journal published per year in 2016 (6.59) compared to 2021 (25.94, P < 0.001). There was no correlation between impact factor and articles that publish diversity keywords. 1968 editorial board member images were analyzed using Betaface software to determine gender and race in both time periods. There was no significant increase in diversity of editorial board members regarding gender, race, and ethnicity temporally from 2016 to 2021.
In the present study, we found that although the number of diversity-themed articles has increased over the last 5 y, however the gender and racial makeup of surgical editorial boards has not changed. Further initiatives are needed to better track and diversify the gender and racial composition of surgical editorial boards.
近期的社会正义运动凸显了改善多样性和包容性的必要性。这些运动强调了在包括外科编辑委员会在内的所有领域，所有性别和种族都需要被包容。目前尚无既定的标准化方法来评估外科编辑委员会成员名单的性别、种族和民族构成，但人工智能是一种可用于以无偏见方式确定性别和种族的方法。本研究的目的是确定近期的社会正义运动是否与发表的以多样性为主题的文章数量增加相关，以及通过人工智能软件确定的外科编辑委员会的性别和种族构成是否有所增加。
使用影响因子对备受推崇的普通外科期刊进行评估和排名。检查这些期刊中每一本的网站，查看其使命声明和核心行为信念中关于多样性的承诺。为了确定2016年至2021年期间发表的以多样性为主题的文章数量，在PubMed中使用10个特定关键词对每本外科期刊进行以多样性为主题的文章分析。为了确定2016年和2021年编辑委员会的种族和性别构成，我们获取了当前和2016年的编辑委员会成员名单。从学术机构网站收集成员图像。使用Betaface面部识别软件评估这些图像。该软件会确定所提供图像的性别、种族和民族。使用卡方独立性检验分析Betaface的结果。
我们分析了17本外科期刊。17本期刊中只有4本在其网站上有多样性承诺。对于以多样性为主题的出版物，2016年有1%的文章、2021年有2.7%的文章专门关于多样性。与2021年（25.94，P < 0.001）相比，2016年每年每本期刊发表的多样性文章数量有显著增加（6.59）。影响因子与发表多样性关键词的文章之间没有相关性。使用Betaface软件分析了1968张编辑委员会成员图像，以确定两个时间段的性别和种族。从2016年到2021年，编辑委员会成员在性别、种族和民族方面的多样性没有显著增加。
在本研究中，我们发现尽管在过去5年中以多样性为主题的文章数量有所增加，但外科编辑委员会的性别和种族构成并未改变。需要进一步采取举措，以更好地跟踪和使外科编辑委员会的性别和种族构成多样化。
