Trends in Female Authorship in Research Papers on Eating Disorders: 20-year Bibliometric Study

Overview

Journal BJPsych Open

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2018 Feb 23

PMID 29467058

Citations 12

Authors

Mattias Strand

Cynthia M Bulik

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: There is a clear gender gap in scientific authorship. Although the proportions of female authors in medicine and psychiatry have increased over the past decades, women are still underrepresented. Aims To analyse authorship gender trends in eating disorder research.

Method: First and last author gender in research articles on eating disorders during the period 1997-2016 were assessed in eating disorder specialty journals, high-impact psychiatry journals and high-impact clinical psychology journals.

Results: The total number of papers on eating disorders increased substantially over the observation period, although a decrease was observed in high-impact psychiatry journals. Female authorship increased in both specialty journals and high-impact psychiatry journals. Authors were significantly less likely to be female in high-impact psychiatry and clinical psychology journals than in speciality journals.

Conclusions: Eating disorder research has been increasingly allocated to specialty journals over the past 20 years. A consistent gender gap between specialty and high-impact journals exists. Declaration of interest C.M.B is a grant recipient from Shire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has participated as a member of their scientific advisory board. These positions are unrelated to the content of this article.

Citing Articles

Not niche: eating disorders as an example in the dangers of overspecialisation.

Haynos A, Egbert A, Fitzsimmons-Craft E, Levinson C, Schleider J Br J Psychiatry. 2023; 224(3):82-85.

PMID: 38097370 PMC: 10932815. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2023.160.

Eating disorders, primary care, and stigma: an analysis of research trends and patterns.

Kurdak H, Tiyekli E, Ozcan S, Ozer Z, Nur Topuz A Front Psychiatry. 2023; 14:1243922.

PMID: 37840808 PMC: 10570408. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1243922.

Gender equity in the scientific nursing journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports: A cross-sectional study.

Gea-Caballero V, Ruiz de Vinaspre-Hernandez R, Saus-Ortega C, Celda-Belinchon L, Santolalla-Arnedo I, Marques-Sule E Front Public Health. 2023; 11:1119117.

PMID: 37006582 PMC: 10064143. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1119117.

Female researchers in high-impact psychiatric journals: What do they focus on?.

Trimmel M, Amering M, Suessenbacher-Kessler S, Schrank B, Gmeiner A Front Psychiatry. 2023; 14:1104683.

PMID: 36865074 PMC: 9973523. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1104683.

The Issue of Gender Bias Represented in Authorship in the Fields of Exercise and Rehabilitation: A 5-Year Research in Indexed Journals.

Rinaldo N, Piva G, Ryder S, Crepaldi A, Pasini A, Caruso L J Funct Morphol Kinesiol. 2023; 8(1).

PMID: 36810502 PMC: 9944464. DOI: 10.3390/jfmk8010018.

References

Mendlowicz M, Figueira I, Souza W . Publication bias against eating disorders?. Am J Psychiatry. 2004; 161(12):2327. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2327. View

Boysen G, Ebersole A, Casner R, Coston N . Gendered mental disorders: masculine and feminine stereotypes about mental disorders and their relation to stigma. J Soc Psychol. 2014; 154(6):546-65. DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2014.953028. View

Bergeron J, Wilken R, Miller M, Shapiro N, Bhattacharyya N . Measurable progress in female authorship in otolaryngology. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2012; 147(1):40-3. DOI: 10.1177/0194599812438171. View

West J, Jacquet J, King M, Correll S, Bergstrom C . The role of gender in scholarly authorship. PLoS One. 2013; 8(7):e66212. PMC: 3718784. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066212. View

Baier L, Wilczynski N, Haynes R . Tackling the growth of the obesity literature: obesity evidence spreads across many journals. Int J Obes (Lond). 2009; 34(10):1526-30. PMC: 2888815. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2009.268. View

Goldblatt M, Schechter M, Maltsberger J, Ronningstam E . Comparison of journals of suicidology: a bibliometric study from 2006–2010. Crisis. 2012; 33(5):301-5. DOI: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000146. View

Jagsi R, Griffith K, Stewart A, Sambuco D, DeCastro R, Ubel P . Gender differences in the salaries of physician researchers. JAMA. 2012; 307(22):2410-7. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2012.6183. View

Ovseiko P, Greenhalgh T, Adam P, Grant J, Hinrichs-Krapels S, Graham K . A global call for action to include gender in research impact assessment. Health Res Policy Syst. 2016; 14(1):50. PMC: 4950803. DOI: 10.1186/s12961-016-0126-z. View

Lariviere V, Ni C, Gingras Y, Cronin B, Sugimoto C . Bibliometrics: global gender disparities in science. Nature. 2013; 504(7479):211-3. DOI: 10.1038/504211a. View

10.

Feramisco J, Leitenberger J, Redfern S, Bian A, Xie X, Resneck Jr J . A gender gap in the dermatology literature? Cross-sectional analysis of manuscript authorship trends in dermatology journals during 3 decades. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008; 60(1):63-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2008.06.044. View

11.

Waisbren S, Bowles H, Hasan T, Zou K, Emans S, Goldberg C . Gender differences in research grant applications and funding outcomes for medical school faculty. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2008; 17(2):207-14. DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2007.0412. View

12.

Edmunds L, Ovseiko P, Shepperd S, Greenhalgh T, Frith P, Roberts N . Why do women choose or reject careers in academic medicine? A narrative review of empirical evidence. Lancet. 2016; 388(10062):2948-2958. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01091-0. View

13.

Erren T, Gross J, Shaw D, Selle B . Representation of women as authors, reviewers, editors in chief, and editorial board members at 6 general medical journals in 2010 and 2011. JAMA Intern Med. 2014; 174(4):633-5. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.14760. View

14.

Ioannidis J . The Mass Production of Redundant, Misleading, and Conflicted Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses. Milbank Q. 2016; 94(3):485-514. PMC: 5020151. DOI: 10.1111/1468-0009.12210. View

15.

Carr P, Ash A, Friedman R, Scaramucci A, Barnett R, Szalacha L . Relation of family responsibilities and gender to the productivity and career satisfaction of medical faculty. Ann Intern Med. 1998; 129(7):532-8. DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-129-7-199810010-00004. View

16.

Wenneras C, Wold A . Nepotism and sexism in peer-review. Nature. 1997; 387(6631):341-3. DOI: 10.1038/387341a0. View

17.

Budden A, Tregenza T, Aarssen L, Koricheva J, Leimu R, Lortie C . Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors. Trends Ecol Evol. 2007; 23(1):4-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2007.07.008. View

18.

Sidhu R, Rajashekhar P, Lavin V, Parry J, Attwood J, Holdcroft A . The gender imbalance in academic medicine: a study of female authorship in the United Kingdom. J R Soc Med. 2009; 102(8):337-42. PMC: 2726808. DOI: 10.1258/jrsm.2009.080378. View

19.

Frost S, Murphy R, Webster P, Schmidt U . Are top journals biased against eating disorders topics?. Am J Psychiatry. 2003; 160(2):363-5. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.160.2.363. View

20.

Filardo G, da Graca B, Sass D, Pollock B, Smith E, Martinez M . Trends and comparison of female first authorship in high impact medical journals: observational study (1994-2014). BMJ. 2016; 352:i847. PMC: 4775869. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.i847. View