PUBBLICAZIONE/PUBLICATION

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://gendermore.unimore.it/handle/123456789/1575

Browse

Settings

End date: 2009Discipline: search.filters.discipline.Health Sciences

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item type:Publication,
    Gender bias in female physician assessments: Women considered better suited for qualitative research Open PDF 
    (2002)
    Johansson, E.E.
    ;
    Risberg, G.
    ;
    Hamberg, K.
    ;
    Westman, G.
    Objective - To analyse whether physician assessment of scientific quality is biased by gender. Design - Two fictive research abstracts on back pain treatment were constructed, one with a quantitative and one with a qualitative design. Authorship was assigned to either a woman or a man. Subjects - 1637 randomly selected Swedish physicians were asked to judge the scientific quality of the two designs in a structured assessment form. Main outcome measures - The assessments of 1364 abstracts (286 female and 394 male assessors) were analysed by chi-square test and logistic regression. Results - The quantitative design was judged the same, regardless of the gender of the author or assessor. The qualitative design, however, was ranked as more accurate, trustworthy, relevant and interesting with a female author. Women assessors upgraded female authors more than male authors, while male assessors reflected no gender differences. Assessor speciality interacted with judgement; physicians in primary care appreciated the qualitative abstract more than hospital physicians did (OR 2.78; 95% CI 1.97-3.92). Conclusion - Gender seems to affect scientific evaluations. The results are worth considering in situations where research is judged and interpreted, in medical tutoring, research guidance, peer reviewing and certainly in forming evaluation committees for research funding.
  • Item type:Publication,
    The "gender gap" in authorship of academic medical literature--a 35-year perspective Open PDF 
    (2006)
    Jagsi, Reshma
    ;
    Guancial, Elizabeth A.
    ;
    Worobey, Cynthia Cooper
    ;
    Henault, Lori E.
    ;
    Chang, Yuchiao
    BACKGROUND: Participation of women in the medical profession has increased during the past four decades, but issues of concern persist regarding disparities between the sexes in academic medicine. Advancement is largely driven by peer-reviewed original research, so we sought to determine the representation of female physician-investigators among the authors of selected publications during the past 35 years. METHODS: Original articles from six prominent medical journals--the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med), the Annals of Surgery (Ann Surg), Obstetrics & Gynecology (Obstet Gynecol), and the Journal of Pediatrics (J Pediatr)--were categorized according to the sex of both the first and the senior (last listed) author. Sex was also determined for the authors of guest editorials in NEJM and JAMA. Data were collected for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2004. The analysis was restricted to authors from U.S. institutions holding M.D. degrees. RESULTS: The sex was determined for 98.5 percent of the 7249 U.S. authors of original research with M.D. degrees. The proportion of first authors who were women increased from 5.9 percent in 1970 to 29.3 percent in 2004 (P<0.001), and the proportion of senior authors who were women increased from 3.7 percent to 19.3 percent (P<0.001) during the same period. The proportion of authors who were women increased most sharply in Obstet Gynecol (from 6.7 percent of first authors and 6.8 percent of senior authors in 1970 to 40.7 percent of first authors and 28.0 percent of senior authors in 2004) and J Pediatr (from 15.0 percent of first authors and 4.3 percent of senior authors in 1970 to 38.9 percent of first authors and 38.0 percent of senior authors in 2004) and remained low in Ann Surg (from 2.3 percent of first authors and 0.7 percent of senior authors in 1970 to 16.7 percent of first authors and 6.7 percent of senior authors in 2004). In 2004, 11.4 percent of the authors of guest editorials in NEJM and 18.8 percent of the authors of guest editorials in JAMA were women. CONCLUSIONS: Over the past four decades, the proportion of women among both first and senior physician-authors of original research in the United States has significantly increased. Nevertheless, women still compose a minority of the authors of original research and guest editorials in the journals studied.
  • Item type:Publication,
    A gender gap in the next generation of physician-scientists: Medical student interest and participation in research Open PDF 
    (BMJ Publishing Group, 2002)
    Guelich, J.M.
    ;
    Singer, B.H.
    ;
    Castro, M.C.
    ;
    Rosenberg, L.E.
    Background: For 2 decades, the number of physician-scientists has not kept pace with the overall growth of the medical research community. Concomitantly, the number of women entering medical schools has increased markedly. We have explored the effect of the changing gender composition of medical schools on the present and future pipeline of young physician-scientists. Methods: We analyzed data obtained from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the National Institutes of Health, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute pertaining to the expressed research intentions or research participation of male and female medical students in the United States. Results: A statistically significant decline in the percentage of matriculating and graduating medical students-both men and women-who expressed strong research career intentions occurred during the decade between 1987 and 1997. Moreover, matriculating and graduating women were significantly less likely than men to indicate strong research career intentions. Each of these trends has been observed for medical schools overall and for research-intensive ones. Cohort data obtained by tracking individuals from matriculation to graduation revealed that women who expressed strong research career intentions upon matriculation were more likely than men to decrease their research career intentions during medical school. Medical student participation in research supported the gender gap identified by assessing research intentions. Female medical student participation in the Medical Scientist Training Program and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute/National Institutes of Health-sponsored Cloisters Program has increased but lags far behind the growth in the female population in medical schools. Conclusion: Three worrisome trends in the research career intentions and participation of the nation's medical students (a decade-long decline for both men and women, a large and persistent gender gap, and a negative effect of the medical school experience for women) presage a further decline in the physician-scientist pipeline unless they are reversed promptly and decisively.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Is there gender bias in research fellowships awarded by the NHMRC? Open PDF 
    (Australasian Medical Publishing Co. Ltd, 1998)
    Ward, J.E.
    ;
    Donnelly, N.
    Objective: To assess whether there is gender bias in the allocation of research fellowships granted by the Research Fellowships Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. Data sources: Anonymous data from applications for a research fellowship from 1994 to 1997. Results: More men than women apply for research fellowships (sex ratio, 2.5:1), but there is no difference in the proportion of male or female applicants who succeed in their application. Among new applicants, men tend to apply for a higher level of fellowship than women. Conclusions: Lack of data about the numbers of eligible men and women means that we cannot draw conclusions about self-selection biases among potential applicants. However, the selection procedures of the Committee appear to be unbiased. The gender of applicants does not influence the outcome of their application.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Increase of the proportion of female physicians publishing in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (1948-1998); stable proportion of male physicians
    (2000)
    Van Duursen, R.A.A.
    ;
    Hart, W.
    ;
    Overbeke, A.J.P.M.
    Objective. To determine the number of female authors in six volumes of the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (NTvG) and the number of physicians who contributed to at least one article in those volumes. Design. Retrospective. Method. We counted the number of articles in the NTvG in 10 different article categories in volumes 1948, 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988 and 1998. The number of authors and the sex and profession of the authors were registered. No author was counted more than once per volume. The results were compared with the number of physicians in the Netherlands in those years. Results. In the first 4 volumes studied 3-5% of the total number of authors were female (n = 19; 22; 21; 16); this increased to 10 and 21% in 1988 (125) and 1998 (326). The percentage of female physicians who contributed to at least one article in one volume was 0,7% in 1948 (5) and 1958 (9), and increased to 1,0 (83) and 1,4% (211) in 1988 and 1998. The percentage of male physicians who contributed to at least one article fluctuated between 2,4 (471) and 3,1% (325) between 1958 and 1998. The mean number of authors per article increased from 1,2 in 1948 (354 articles) to 3,3 in 1998 (472 articles). Conclusion. The number of female authors steadily increased in the past fifty years. The percentage of female physicians that contributed to at least one article in the NTvG doubled in the volumes investigated, while the percentage of male physicians remained stable.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Is There Gender Bias in JAMA's Peer Review Process? Open PDF 
    (1994)
    Gilbert, Julie R.
    ;
    Williams, Elaine S.
    ;
    Lundberg, George D.
    Objective.—To assess whether manuscripts received by JAMA in 1991 possessed differing peer review and manuscript processing characteristics, or had a variable chance of acceptance, associated with the gender of the participants in the peer review process.Design.—Retrospective cohort study of 1851 research articles.Setting.—JAMA editorial office.Participants.—Eight male and five female JAMA editors, 2452 male and 930 female reviewers, and 1698 male and 462 female authors.Main Outcome Measure.—Statistically significant gender bias.Results.—Female editors were assigned manuscripts from female corresponding authors more often than were male editors (P&lt;.001). Female editors used more reviewers per manuscript if sent for other review. Male reviewers assisted male editors more often than female editors, and male reviewers took longer to return manuscripts than did their female counterparts (median, 25 vs 22 days). Content reviewer recommendations were independent of corresponding author and review gender, while male statistical reviewers recommended the highest and lowest categories more frequently than did female statistical reviewers (P&lt;.001). Manuscripts handled by female editors were rejected summarily at higher rates (P&lt;.001). Articles submitted to JAMA in 1991 were not accepted at significantly different rates based on the gender of the corresponding author or the assigned editor (P&gt;.4).Conclusions.—Gender differences exist in editor and reviewer characteristics at JAMA with no apparent effect on the final outcome of the peer review process or acceptance for publication.(JAMA. 1994;272:139-142)