Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Pre- and post-COVID-19 gender trends in authorship for paediatric radiology articles worldwide: a systematic review

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Pediatric Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Gender inequalities in academic medicine persist despite progress over the past decade. Evidence-based targeted interventions are needed to reduce gender inequalities.

Objective

This systematic review aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on gender trends in authorship of paediatric radiology research worldwide.

Materials and methods

This prospectively registered, PRISMA-compliant systematic review searched the following databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus from January 1, 2018, to May 29, 2023, with no restrictions on country of origin. Screening and data extraction occurred independently and in duplicate. Gender of first, last, and corresponding authors were determined using an artificial intelligence-powered, validated, multinational database (www.genderize.io). Two time periods were categorised according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering: pre-COVID (prior to March 2020) and peak and post-COVID (March 2020 onwards). One-sample binomial testing was used to analyse proportion of authorship based on gender. Categorical variables were described as frequencies and percentages, and compared using testing chi-square or Fisher exact testing, with a threshold of P<0.05 representing statistical significance.

Results

In total, 922 articles were included with 39 countries represented. A statistically significant difference in authorship based on gender persisted during the peak and post-COVID time period (March 2020 onwards) where women represented a statistically significant lower proportion of last (35.5%) and corresponding (42.7%) authors (P<0.001, P=0.001, respectively). Statistically significant differences for first authors were not found in either period (P=0.08 and P=0.48).

Conclusion

This study identifies differences in gender trends for authorship in paediatric radiology research worldwide. Future efforts to increase authorship by women are needed.

Graphical Abstract

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Requests for datasets from this article can be made to the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Pinho-Gomes AC, Peters S, Thompson K et al (2020) Where are the women? Gender inequalities in COVID-19 research authorship. BMJ Global Health 5(7):e002922. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002922

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Huang J, Gates AJ, Sinatra R, Barabási AL (2020) Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines. Proc Nat Acad Sci 117(9):4609–4616. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914221117

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. West JD, Jacquet J, King MM, Correll SJ, Bergstrom CT (2013) The role of gender in scholarly authorship. PLOS ONE 8(7):e66212. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066212

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Larivière V, Ni C, Gingras Y, Cronin B, Sugimoto CR (2013) Bibliometrics: global gender disparities in science. Nature 504(7479):211–213. https://doi.org/10.1038/504211a

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Holman L, Stuart-Fox D, Hauser CE (2018) The gender gap in science: how long until women are equally represented? PLOS Biology 16(4):e2004956. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004956

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Son J, Bell M (2022) Scientific authorship by gender: trends before and during a global pandemic. Human Soc Sci Commun 9(1):1–10. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01365-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Zamarro G, Prados MJ (2021) Gender differences in couples’ division of childcare, work and mental health during COVID-19. Rev Econ Household 19(1):11–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-020-09534-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Motta-Moss A, Hussain Z (2020) Inequities faced by female doctors serving communities of need. J Med Educ Curric Dev 7:2382120520915895. https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120520915895

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Jolly S, Griffith KA, DeCastro R, Stewart A, Ubel P, Jagsi R (2014) Gender differences in time spent on parenting and domestic responsibilities by high-achieving young physician-researchers. Ann Intern Med 160(5):344–353. https://doi.org/10.7326/M13-0974

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Kapoor N, Blumenthal DM, Smith SE, Ip IK, Khorasani R (2017) Gender differences in academic rank of radiologists in U.S. medical schools. Radiology 283(1):140–147. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2016160950

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Quak E, Girault G, Thenint MA, Weyts K, Lequesne J, Lasnon C (2021) Author gender inequality in medical imaging journals and the COVID-19 pandemic. Radiology 300(1):E301–E307. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2021204417

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Bender CE, Bansal S, Wolfman D, Parikh JR (2019) 2018 ACR Commission on Human Resources workforce survey. J Am Coll Radiol 16(4 Pt A):508–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2018.12.034

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Parhar D, Khosa F (2022) Retrospective analysis of gender disparity in radiology subspecialty training: a decade of little progress. Curr Radiol Rep 10:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40134-022-00391-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Victoria T, Kline-Fath B (2022) Women in pediatric radiology: a call for gender equity. Pediatr Radiol 52(9):1737–1742. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-022-05440-5

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Pfeifer CM, Gokli A, Reid JR (2020) Advancing from gender equity to women in leadership in pediatric radiology. Pediatr Radiol 50(5):631–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-020-04645-w

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Ayyala RS, Trout AT (2022) Gender trends in authorship of Pediatric Radiology publications and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pediatr Radiol 52(5):868–873. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-021-05213-6

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Page MJ, McKenzie JE, Bossuyt PM et al (2021) The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 372:n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Kamran R. (2023). Impact of COVID-19 on gender inequality of authorship in worldwide publications of paediatric radiology research. Retrieved from osf.io/3rp4a

  19. Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine: Levels of Evidence (March 2009). Accessed August 9, 2023. https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/resources/levels-of-evidence/oxford-centre-for-evidence-based-medicine-levels-of-evidence-march-2009

  20. Genderize IO. Last accessed August 29, 2023. www.genderize.io.

  21. Hart KL, Perlis RH (2019) Trends in proportion of women as authors of medical journal articles, 2008–2018. JAMA Intern Med 179(9):1285–1287. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.0907

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Lerchenmüller C, Lerchenmueller MJ, Sorenson O (2018) Long-term analysis of sex differences in prestigious authorships in cardiovascular research supported by the National Institutes of Health. Circulation 137(8):880–882. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032325

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Campbell M, McKenzie JE, Sowden A et al (2020) Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) in systematic reviews: reporting guideline. BMJ 368:l6890. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6890

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE. Last accessed August 29, 2023. https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6.

  25. Counter WB, Khurshid K, Jalal S et al (2020) Gender differences among academic pediatric radiology faculty in the United States and Canada. Acad Radiol. 27(4):575–581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2019.06.011

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Mayer AP, Blair JE, Ko MG et al (2014) Gender distribution of U.S. medical school faculty by academic track type. Acad Med 89(2):312–317. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000089

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Vernuccio F, Arzanauskaite M, Turk S et al (2019) Gender discrepancy in research activities during radiology residency. Insights Imaging. 10(1):125. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13244-019-0792-9

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. European Institute for Gender Equality. Last Accessed September 14, 2023: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/rationale-gender-equality-change-research-and-innovation

  29. Palmén R, Müller J. A community of practice approach to improving gender equality in research. Taylor & Francis; 2023

  30. Lagos D, Compton D (2021) Evaluating the use of a two-step gender identity measure in the 2018 General Social Survey. Demography 58(2):763–772. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-8976151

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Rakhshan Kamran is funded by an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship (NIHR 301792). Susan Shelmerdine is funded by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship Award (NIHR 301322).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Rakhshan Kamran

  2. Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Liam Jackman

  3. Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Cynthia Chan

  4. Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Ann C. Lee

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Aleeza Kamran

  6. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Jenna Alli

  7. Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Chloë Jacklin

  8. Department of Family Medicine, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Eve Deck

  9. Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Yujin Suk

  10. Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada

    Victoria Jackman

  11. Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Micon Garvilles

  12. Department of Clinical Radiology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Susan Cheng Shelmerdine

  13. Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Department of Medical Imaging, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Andrea Schwarz Doria

Authors
  1. Rakhshan Kamran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Liam Jackman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cynthia Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ann C. Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Aleeza Kamran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jenna Alli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Chloë Jacklin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Eve Deck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Yujin Suk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Victoria Jackman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Micon Garvilles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Susan Cheng Shelmerdine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Andrea Schwarz Doria
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

RK, SS, and ASD were involved with conceptualising the study. RK, SS, and ASD were involved with conducting the search. RK, LJ, CC, AL, AK, JA, CJ, ED, YS, VJ, and MG were involved with title and abstract screening, full-text screening, and data extraction. RK and ASD were involved with data analysis and interpretation. RK led the writing of the manuscript. RK, LJ, CC, AL, AK, JA, CJ, ED, YS, VJ, MG, SS, and ASD were involved with critical revision of the manuscript. All co-authors approve and reviewed the submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Schwarz Doria.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

Dr. Andrea Doria is Chair of the Bias in Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion, Awards Committee of the Canadian Association of Radiology. She has had the following relationships unrelated to the conduct of this study: Chair and Co-Chair of the International Myositis Assessment & Clinical Studies Group (not for profit) and the OMERACT SIG in MRI in JIA, respectively, board member of the OMERACT Technical Advisory Group (not for profit), and PI of research grants from Novo Nordisk, the Terry Fox Foundation, the PSI Foundation, the Society of Pediatric Radiology, and the Garron Family Cancer Centre.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 5

Table 5 Location of study for included articles
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kamran, R., Jackman, L., Chan, C. et al. Pre- and post-COVID-19 gender trends in authorship for paediatric radiology articles worldwide: a systematic review. Pediatr Radiol 54, 831–841 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-024-05855-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-024-05855-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation