One and a half million medical papers reveal a link between author gender and attention to gender and sex analysis

Gender variations in citation distributions in medicine are very small and due to self-citation and journal prestige

“…For instance, an association between the representation of women as last authors (in combination with male first authors) and adequate statistical power in clinical trials was reported recently (Otte et al, 2018). Another recent study suggests a robust positive correlation between the attention to gender- and sex-related variations in medical research and the involvement of women as first and last authors (Nielsen et al, 2017).…”

“…This algorithm estimates a given author's likelihood of being a man or a woman based on first name and country affiliation. The accuracy of the algorithm has previously been validated in a random subsample (N=500 authors) drawn from the same dataset (Nielsen et al, 2017), and was recently evaluated as the best-performing service, in a bench-mark of five name-to-gender assignment algorithms (Santamaría and Mihaljević, 2018). Gender API provided valid name-to-gender estimates for 1,434,715 papers (61.4% of the population sample) (for further specification on Gender API, See Figure 7—figure supplement 3).…”

“…All three factors are known to influence citation impact (Judge, 2016; Stremersch et al, 2007; van Eck et al, 2013). In addition, research shows that the participation of women in medical research varies considerably across geographical regions, top and lower-tier research institutions and medical specialties (Lautenberger et al, 2014; Nielsen et al, 2017; Weeden et al, 2017). Matching of institutional prestige was based on a binary variable specifying whether a paper includes authors affiliated with a top-100 university according to the Leiden Ranking [www.leidenranking.com].…”

Examining gender diversity growth as a model for inclusion of all underrepresented persons in medical physics

“…Diversity within research teams elevates awareness of potential research bias, and informs alternative approaches through the consideration of diverse viewpoints and expertise, which ultimately furthers innovation and clinical impact. Regarding gender diversity specifically, the presence of a female coauthor is positively associated with research studies investigating gender-and sex-based differences in medicine 40 . As gender and sex-related differences in treatment effectiveness have been historically downplayed 13 , investigations into these concerns would improve healthcare and treatment options.…”

Gender diversity in the Journal of Mental Health – how are we doing and what do we need to do?

“…We know that more diverse scientific groups improve the quality of research especially in medicine. Nielsen and colleagues (Nielsen et al, 2017) examined one and a half million medical papers and discovered that when women are the lead or senior authors there is more attention paid to gender and sex related factors. This is important as STEM science affects all our lives by having an impact on government policy and even on the health treatments developed.…”