Trends in authorship demographics for manuscripts published in endocrine journals - A 70-year analysis

Abstract

Background: Over the previous few decades, trends in author demographics have significantly changed. Such trends have already been studied for many sub-specialties but endocrinology is among the few branches that are yet to see an analysis of such trends. This paper aims to fill this gap.  Methods: Journal of Endocrinology and General & Comparative Endocrinology are two landmark journals that publish articles from around the world. Each decade during the 70-year period from 1961 to 2021 has been examined in this study. Funding source, first author – senior author gender, their demographics and proportion of papers with at least one female author were the parameters considered while studying each publication. It was predicted that the number of female authors per paper would increase with time, as would the range of degrees held by the authors, demographical variations in authorship, and the funding source. The aim was also to determine the distribution of female first authors and senior authors in endocrinology journals over a 70-year period, as well as to check the gender combinations using the Punnett square. Results: Female first authors rose from 7% to 29.6% (p<0.0006) between 1961 and 2021, whereas female senior authors rose from 15.6% to 22.2%. Despite women's small contributions to first and senior authors, female participation rose from 17.48% (25/143) to 70% (170/250) between 1961 and 2021. Male-Female and Female-Male combinations rose with Chi-Square = 124.6, (p<0.0001). Europe and the Americas had the most female academic medical contributors (p<0.0001) Regardless of author status, female participation rose from 17.48% in 1961 to 68% in 2021.  Conclusion: In papers published in endocrinology journals, there was a rising trend in female contributions to academic medicine. Even with the large growth of female endocrinologists, there is still a disparity in why the increase in female authors is comparably fewer.