Abstract
Aims and methodTo determine female authorship of original articles and editorials between January 1997 and December 2008 in the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Psychiatric Bulletin. Editorials from Advances in Psychiatric Treatment and the geographical region of the female first author of original articles were also included in the study.ResultsThe gender was determined for 99.2% of the 2324 first authors of original articles and 100% of the 614 editorials. The percentage of original articles by female first authors fluctuated over the study period, ranging from 22.5 to 42.1% (mean 33.6) in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and from 25.5 to 46.8% (mean 37.6) in the Psychiatric Bulletin. There was a gross underrepresentation of females as first authors of editorials in all three journals. The percentage of female first authors of original articles from low- and middle-income countries ranged from 0.3 to 3.4% in both the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Psychiatric Bulletin.Clinical implicationsThere is an increasing trend in female first authorship of original articles. However, females remain underrepresented, especially in editorials, in the British psychiatric journals examined. The representation of female first authors from low- and middle-income countries is disproportionately low. Strategies to address these inequalities should be implemented.
Highlights
We examined all original articles and editorials published from January 1997 to December 2008 in the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Psychiatric Bulletin
A total of 1480 original articles from the British Journal of Psychiatry and 844 original articles from the Psychiatric Bulletin were included in this study
We were unable to determine the gender of the first author in 17 articles (1.15%) in the British Journal of Psychiatry and in 1 article (0.12%) in the Psychiatric Bulletin
Summary
A total of 1480 original articles from the British Journal of Psychiatry and 844 original articles from the Psychiatric Bulletin were included in this study. Statistically significant increase (P = 0.85) in female first author contributions to the Psychiatric Bulletin during the study period (Fig. 2). The other authors were female researchers with an educational background in psychology, epidemiology, public health, pharmacy, nursing, sociology, health economics, statistics or health administration, and a small number of unknown professions. Some of these researchers hold positions as senior research fellows, readers and professors. Female first authors contributed 75 of a total of 356 editorials (21.1%) published in the British Journal of Psychiatry and 30 of 193 editorials (15.5%) in the Psychiatric Bulletin. 0.3 editorial contributions to Advances in Psychiatric Treatment occurred in only 6 of the 12 years studied, making a total of 9 of 65 editorials (13.8%)
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