How do German pharmacologists publish in the non-peer-reviewed science magazine Biospektrum?

Abstract

Publications in peer-reviewed journals are the most important currency in science. But what about publications in non-peer-reviewed magazines? The objective of this study was to analyze the publications of scientists, with a focus on pharmacologists, in the non-peer-reviewed German science magazine Biospektrum from 1999 to 2021. Biospektrum is edited by five scientific societies in Germany including the Society for Experimental and Clinical Society Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT) and provides opportunities to researchers to showcase their research to a broad audience. We analyzed 3197 authors of 1326 articles. Compared to the fields of biochemistry, microbiology, and genetics, pharmacology was largely underrepresented. Just three institutions in Germany contributed most papers to Biospektrum. Researchers with a doctoral degree were the largest author group, followed by researchers with a habilitation degree. Among all major fields, women were underrepresented as authors, particularly as senior authors. The Covid pandemic leads to a drop of publications of female first authors but not last authors. Compared to publications in the peer-reviewed journal Naunyn–Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology (Zehetbauer et al., Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol 395:39–50 (2022)), female pharmacologists were underrepresented in the Biospektrum. Thus, German pharmacologists as a group do not value investing in “social impact” gained by publications in Biospektrum, and this attitude is even more prominent among female pharmacologists. Investing less in “social impact” by female pharmacologists may result in reduced visibility on the academic job market and may contribute to reduced opportunities to achieve high academic positions.