Related Authorship Trends in Movement Science Journals (1991-1996)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to answer three questions related to authorship trends in movement science journals: 1) Do movement science journals publish significant numbers of articles by women?, 2) How does the rate of publication by women in movement science journals compare to that in other fields?, and 3) Has the number of journal articles published by women in the movement sciences changed throughout 1990’s (1991-1996)? Six movement science journals were selected for inclusion in this study. Two trained investigators conducted hand searches of journals and frequency counts were performed for the total number of authors and articles, and the gender of the first through fourth authors. Percentage of women authors was ascertained using the following formula: [total number of women authors / total number of authors] × 100. Percentage of articles in which a woman made a contribution was calculated as follows: [number of articles with at least I woman author / total number of articles] × 100. Number of articles with a woman as first, second, third, or fourth author was calculated by counting individual authors and their order of authorship. The journal that published the highest percentage of women authors or articles with women contributors was the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, followed by Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and Quest. The journals that published the largest number of articles by women were Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and The Physician and Sportsmedicine. Trends in publication by gender have not changed considerably between 1991-1996. In comparison to journals in other scientific disciplines, exercise science journals publish a comparable proportion of articles by women.