Gender Inequalities in Citations of Articles Published in High-Impact General Medical Journals: a Cross-Sectional Study

Gender Differences in Citation Rate: An Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials in Nephrology High-Impact Journals Over Two Decades

Key Points

Background

Historically, women's scientific contributions have been under-recognized. We investigated whether the number of citations, a key metric used for academic promotions and scientific productivity, differs in nephrology high-impact publications on the basis of author's gender.

Methods

We identified randomized clinical trials from 2000 to 2021 in ten high-impact journals. We assessed author gender, citations, h-index, m-index, years of active publishing, education, and grant funding. The main predictor of interest was the gender of the first author. The main outcome was the standardized citation count for analysis of the selected publications. In addition, we evaluated standardized author citation counts using the author, rather than the article.

Results

Among the selected publications, women were first authors of 65 (17.1%) and men of 315 (82.9%) articles. In crude analyses, publications with male first authors had a significantly higher median number of standardized citations (14 versus 10, P = 0.01). Adjusted analyses revealed m-index (β=29.48, P ≤ 0.01) and journal impact factor (β=0.78, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with the standardized citation index. By contrast, neither the gender of the first author (β male gender=1.42, P = 0.71) nor of the last author (β male gender=8.89, P = 0.38) were significantly associated with the standardized citations. Similarly, in adjusted analyses on the basis of author profiles, male authorship was not significantly associated with the standardized author citation number (β male gender=−7.79, P = 0.08).

Conclusions

Our study highlights marked disparities in the overall number of women publishing high-impact nephrology trials and the number of articles with female scientists as first authors of high-impact trials in the nephrology literature. Although crude citation rates were lower in articles with female first authors, the gender of the first author was not independently associated with citation metrics. Addressing gender disparities in academic recognition requires nuanced approaches extending beyond authorship and a broader focus on complex factors that influence academic recognition and scientific contributions.

Career trajectories of MD-PhD physician scientists: The loss of women investigators

Advances in biomedical research require a robust physician scientist workforce. Despite being equally successful at securing early career awards from the NIH as men, women MD-PhD physician scientists are less likely to serve as principal investigators on mid- and later careers awards. Here, we discuss the causes of gender disparities in academic medicine, the implications of losing highly trained women physician scientists, and the institutional and systemic changes needed to sustain this pool of talented investigators.

Community Cohesion, Social Support, and Mental Health among Black Individuals in Chicago: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Effects on COVID-19 Vaccination

The COVID-19 pandemic put a significant strain on communities, social resources, and personal relationships, disproportionately impacting Black and low-income communities in the United States. Community cohesion and social support are positively associated with numerous health outcomes and preventive health measures, yet were strained during the pandemic due to COVID mitigation measures. This study examined the relationships between social cohesion, social support, mental health, and COVID-19 vaccination to understand whether community cohesion and social support were associated with increased likelihood of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. Data are from a cross-sectional survey of 537 Black Chicagoans that was disseminated between September 2021 and March 2022. Structural equation modeling was used to test associations between community cohesion, social support, loneliness, anxiety, stress, and having received a COVID-19 vaccination. Results demonstrated that social support mediated associations between community cohesion and loneliness, anxiety, and stress, but was not associated with COVID-19 vaccination. These results demonstrate the importance of community cohesion and social support on mental health and suggest there are other potential pathways that may link community cohesion and vaccination.

Women Are Underrepresented Among Authors of Retracted Publications: Retrospective Study of 134 Medical Journals

We examined the gender distribution of authors of retracted articles in 134 medical journals across 10 disciplines, compared it with the gender distribution of authors of all published articles, and found that women were underrepresented among authors of retracted articles, and, in particular, of articles retracted for misconduct.

Does writing style affect gender differences in the research performance of articles?: An empirical study of BERT-based textual sentiment analysis

“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is essential to reduce gender disparity and improve the status of women. But it remains a challenge to narrow gender differences and improve gender equality in academic research. In this paper, we propose that the impact of articles is lower and writing style of articles is less positive when the article’s first author is female relative to male first authors, and writing style mediates this relationship. Focusing on the positive writing style, we attempt to contribute and explain the research on gender differences in research performance. We use BERT-based textual sentiment analysis to analyse 87 years of 9820 articles published in the top four marketing journals and prove our hypotheses. We also consider a set of control variables and conduct a set of robustness checks to ensure the robustness of our findings. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings for researchers.