Gender equity imbalance in electrocardiology: A call to action

Trends in Authorship Demographics for Manuscripts Published in The American Journal of Cardiology

The demographics of authors in manuscript publications have been investigated in many specialties but not yet cardiology. We explored the authorship trends in The American Journal of Cardiology, a fundamental journal in this field, to uncover the historical demographic patterns in the field. Manuscripts published in 1958 (the first year of publication), 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016 were analyzed. Parameters used were gender of first and last authors, number of authors per article, the authors' qualifications and country of corresponding authors. A total of 4,329 articles were analyzed. We hypothesized an increase in authors per article, variety of authors' degrees, countries contributing to authorship, and an increase in female authorship over time. We found that the mean number of authors per article increased from 1.8 in 1958 to 8.6 in 2016. Qualification varieties of first and last authors also increased, particularly first and last authors holding degrees in MD/PhD and first authors holding masters degrees. Female first and last authorship showed an increase. In 1958, female first authors comprised of 3.0% of all the publications compared with 23% in 2016. Similarly, female last authors accounted for 5.2% of all publications in 1958 compared with 20% in 2016. There was also an increase in articles originating from Europe and Asia. In conclusion, there has been a significant increase in authors per article, variety of author degrees, and contribution from international authors. Despite the relative lack of increase in female cardiologists compared to physicians in other specialties in the United States, female authors in The American Journal of Cardiology have increased significantly over this 58-year time period, surpassing the 13% overall female representation within this specialty.