Gender Disparity in Physician Authorship Among Commentary Articles in High Impact Medical Journals

Abstract

Background: There is an attrition of women physicians in academic medicine hierarchy. Scholarship in medical journals plays a direct role in career advancement, promotion, and authoritative recognition, and women physicians are underrepresented as authors in original research articles. We sought to determine if women physicians are similarly underrepresented in commentary articles within high impact journals. Methods: In this observational study, we abstracted gender, degree, and authorship position from January 1, 2014 to October 16, 2018 among commentary articles in three high impact journals: 1) JAMA Viewpoint; 2) NEJM Perspective; and 3) Annals of Internal Medicine Ideas and Opinions. Our objective was to compare the percentages of authors by gender, degree, authorship position, and journal in commentary articles, and assess for trends over a five-year period. Findings: Of the 2,087 articles during the study period, 48% were men physician first authors compared to 17% women physician first authors (p<0.0001). Men and women accounted for 70% and 30%, respectively, in the first author position. Of the 1,477 articles with more than one author, similar distributions were found with regard to last authors: 55% were men physicians compared to only 12% of women physicians (p<0.0001). The proportion of women physician first authors increased over time, however the proportion of women physician last authors remained stagnant. When comparing proportions of women physician first authors by journal type, Annals of IM had the highest proportion (22%) followed by NEJM (19%) and then JAMA (13%, p <.001). Interpretation: Women physician authors remain underrepresented in commentary articles compared to men physician authors in the first and last author position. This gender disparity in authorship persists over time and across all three journals. Our findings suggest a need to better understand the metrics related to the submission and acceptance process in commentary articles in effort to identify potential strategies to promote parity in authorship as well as overall advancement and sponsorship of women in medicine. Funding Statement: The authors declare: None. Declaration of Interests: All authors in this study report no conflict of interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The institutional review board granted exempt status to this study. STROBE reporting guidelines for observational studies were followed.