Mind the Gap: Gendered Publication Trends in Academic Oncology

Abstract

Women now comprise the majority of medical school matriculants (51.6% in 2018), and an increasing number of women are seeking careers in oncology and academic medicine. Yet, men still outrank and outnumber women in academic oncology. Given that scientific publications remain an important metric of academic productivity and expertise, we assessed the gender gap in authorship with three metrics: role in publication, degree credentials, and citation count. We hypothesized women would have lower publication metrics but that the gender gap would decrease over time. This study is a bibliometric analysis of 5 major oncology journals (Cancer, Annals of Surgical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics [IJROBP]) for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2017 using the Web of Science. Full name, credentials, article citation metrics, article type, publication year and journal impact factor were collected. First names were used to identify author gender; ambiguous names were categorized via Google web and image search. In total, 9189 journal articles were identified. Overall, women represented 28.4% of first and 20.7% of senior authors. Across all journals, female representation rose between 1990 and 2017, with first authors increasing from 17.7% in 1990 to 36.6% in 2017 and female senior authors increasing from 11.7% in 1990 to 28.5% in 2017. With male senior authors, the first author was more likely to be male (71.4% male; 25.0% female); with female senior authors, first authors were 50.2% male and 47.6% female. IJROBP had the lowest female representation amongst first (25.1%) and senior (16.7%) authors. Women first-authored 30.5% of reviews, 29.9% of articles, 27.3% of editorials, and 22.3% of letters and notes. Credentials could be identified for 71% of authors. Female authors had more MD/Masters degrees than men, who held more MDs and MD/PhDs; this was more pronounced for senior authors (women: 47.9% MD, 11.6% MD/PhD, 9.6% MD/Masters; men: 61.9% MD, 18.7% MD/PhD, and 4.1% MD/Masters). For the 50 most cited articles per year in each journal, female authors comprised a smaller percent of first (26.5%) and senior (19.9%) authors compared to all articles. Average article citation counts were higher for male first (44.8) and senior (47.1) authors compared to female first (39.7) and senior (44.1) authors. Although female oncologists have made significant strides in closing the gender gap in academic publishing, substantial gendered differences remain. Including more women in oncology research will benefit academic diversity, productivity, and recruitment efforts, especially in technical fields such as radiation oncology. Since our work shows female senior authors play a significant role in mentoring or collaborating with other women academics, it is important to foster the advancement of women in leadership.