The Proportion of Female Authors in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Literature Has not Changed in 20 Years

Abstract

Academic advancement often depends on publications and reflects the leadership within a profession. The present study compared the number of articles written by women in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (JOMS) versus the number of women in the profession of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS). We performed a retrospective cohort study of articles published in JOMS at 3 time points (1995, 2005, and 2015). The primary predictor variables were author gender and the 3 time points (1995, 2005, and 2015). Gender was established by visual inspection. The primary outcome variable was the proportion of articles written by women, defined as number of articles written by a woman divided by the total number of female members in the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS). The inclusion criteria were 1) original, full-length research articles in JOMS, 2) authorship by a woman, and 3) articles reported from a US academic institution. A 2-tailed χ2 test was used. The rate of change in female authorship over time was analyzed using linear regression analysis, followed by the F test (statistical significance was set at P<.05). During the years examined, the number of first and last female authors ranged from 3 to 6.3%. Approximately 7% of oral-maxillofacial surgeons registered with AAOMS in 2015 were women. Comparing the expected proportion of female authorship according to the number of female surgeons registered with AAOMS, the proportions of female first authorship were significantly lower than expected in 1995 and 2015. Female authorship was found to be significantly less than expected. Using linear regression analysis, we found no statistically significant changes in the proportion of female first or last authorship in the period examined (P=.69 and P=.99, respectively). During the years examined, we found no significant increase in female authorship in JOMS, demonstrating an area of opportunity to improve gender disparity in OMS.