1164 Breaking the Academic Ceiling: Gender Disparities and Bias in Authorship in Leading Gastroenterological Journals

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The number of women entering gastroenterology in the US has steadily increased over the last quarter century. Women made up 28% of gastroenterology trainees on average during this period and are 33.6% now. When it comes to academics, however, women lag behind in all major leadership roles; for example, only 7% of gastroenterology division chiefs were women in 2015. Gender inequality has become a prominent area of concern, with many institutions taking steps to increase equality; one aspect affecting academic appointments is publication of articles as senior or first author. The objective of this study is to evaluate if these efforts have decreased gender disparities in female authorship. METHODS: We evaluated all original research papers and invited reviews published in 2017 and 2018 in leading gastroenterology journals: Hepatology, Gastroenterology, American Journal of Gastroenterology (AJG), Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE), and Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH). Our primary outcome was the rate of female senior authors. Our secondary outcome was the rate of female first authors. We also assessed whether single versus double-blinded peer review has an impact on women’s authorship. We included the journal Endoscopy as a comparator to GIE, as well as New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) as a non-gastroenterology journal. RESULTS: The gender was determined for 97% of authors of 3100 included articles. Female authorship is presented in Table 1 and Figure 1 along with historical data. Hepatology had the highest female senior authorship rate of 24% while GIE had the lowest: 12%. When comparing single-blinded vs. double-blinded review process in two journals with similar impact factors and scope (GIE and Endoscopy), the journal with a double-blinded review had a higher rate of senior female authors (P = 0.3), but had lower first female authorship (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Female authorship continues to lag behind the rate of women entering the field. There were fewer senior female authors than first authors across all journals. First authorship by women appears to have plateaued in several journals. Although senior authorship appears to be growing, the rate of growth in the last 10 years lags behind the growth in first authorship and number of female gastroenterologists. Overall, female authorship has gradually increased over the years but the rate of increase appears to be slowing or stalling altogether. Gender equality in authorship remains a goal to strive for.