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  • Item type:Publication,
    Gender disparity in the authorship of biomedical research publications during the COVID-19 pandemic: Retrospective observational study Open PDF 
    (2021)
    Muric, G.
    ;
    Lerman, K.
    ;
    Ferrara, E.
    Background: Gender imbalances in academia have been evident historically and persist today. For the past 60 years, we have witnessed the increase of participation of women in biomedical disciplines, showing that the gender gap is shrinking. However, preliminary evidence suggests that women, including female researchers, are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of unequal distribution of childcare, elderly care, and other kinds of domestic and emotional labor. Sudden lockdowns and abrupt shifts in daily routines have had disproportionate consequences on their productivity, which is reflected by a sudden drop in research output in biomedical research, consequently affecting the number of female authors of scientific publications. Objective: The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate adverse effect on the productivity of female researchers in the biomedical field in terms of authorship of scientific publications. Methods: This is a retrospective observational bibliometric study. We investigated the proportion of male and female researchers who published scientific papers during the COVID-19 pandemic, using bibliometric data from biomedical preprint servers and selected Springer-Nature journals. We used the ordinary least squares regression model to estimate the expected proportions over time by correcting for temporal trends. We also used a set of statistical methods, such as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and regression discontinuity design, to test the validity of the results. Results: A total of 78,950 papers from the bioRxiv and medRxiv repositories and from 62 selected Springer-Nature journals by 346,354 unique authors were analyzed. The acquired data set consisted of papers that were published between January 1, 2019, and August 2, 2020. The proportion of female first authors publishing in the biomedical field during the pandemic dropped by 9.1%, on average, across disciplines (expected arithmetic mean yest=0.39; observed arithmetic mean y=0.35; standard error of the estimate, Sest=0.007; standard error of the observation, σx=0.004). The impact was particularly pronounced for papers related to COVID-19 research, where the proportion of female scientists in the first author position dropped by 28% (yest=0.39; y=0.28; Sest=0.007; σx=0.007). When looking at the last authors, the proportion of women dropped by 7.9%, on average (yest=0.25; y=0.23; Sest=0.005; σx=0.003), while the proportion of women writing about COVID-19 as the last author decreased by 18.8% (yest=0.25; y=0.21; Sest=0.005; σx=0.007). Further, by geocoding authors' affiliations, we showed that the gender disparities became even more apparent when disaggregated by country, up to 35% in some cases. Conclusions: Our findings document a decrease in the number of publications by female authors in the biomedical field during the global pandemic. This effect was particularly pronounced for papers related to COVID-19, indicating that women are producing fewer publications related to COVID-19 research. This sudden increase in the gender gap was persistent across the 10 countries with the highest number of researchers. These results should be used to inform the scientific community of this worrying trend in COVID-19 research and the disproportionate effect that the pandemic has had on female academics. © 2021 Journal of Medical Internet Research. All rights reserved.
  • Item type:Publication,
    COVID-19 Threatens Progress Toward Gender Equity Within Academic Medicine Open PDF 
    (2021)
    Woitowich, Nicole C.
    ;
    Jain, Shikha
    ;
    Arora, Vineet M.
    ;
    Joffe, Hadine
    Women remain underrepresented within academic medicine despite past and present efforts to promote gender equity. The authors discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic could stymie progress toward gender parity within the biomedical workforce and limit the retention and advancement of women in science and medicine. Women faculty face distinct challenges as they navigate the impact of shelter-in-place and social distancing on work and home life. An unequal division of household labor and family care between men and women means women faculty are vulnerable to inequities that may develop in the workplace as they strive to maintain academic productivity and professional development without adequate assistance with domestic tasks and family care. Emerging data suggest that gender differences in academic productivity may be forthcoming as a direct result of the pandemic. Existing gender inequities in professional visibility, networking, and collaboration may be exacerbated as activities transition from in-person to virtual environments and create new barriers to advancement. Meanwhile, initiatives designed to promote gender equity within academic medicine may lose key funding due to the economic impact of COVID-19 on higher education. To ensure that the gender gap within academic medicine does not widen, the authors call upon academic leaders and the broader biomedical community to support women faculty through deliberate actions that promote gender equity, diversity, and inclusion. The authors provide several recommendations, including faculty needs assessments; review of gender bias within tenure-clock-extension offers; more opportunities for mentorship, sponsorship, and professional recognition; and financial commitments to support equity initiatives. Leadership for these efforts should be at the institutional and departmental levels, and leaders should ensure a gender balance on task forces and committees to avoid overburdening women faculty with additional service work. Together, these strategies will contribute to the development of a more equitable workforce capable of transformative medical discovery and care.
  • Item type:Publication,
    The Uneven Access to COVID-19 Research for Women in Science
    (arXiv.org, 2024)
    Biliotti, Carolina
    ;
    Verginer, Luca
    ;
    Riccaboni, Massimo
    The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated gender disparities in medical and academic careers. In this study, we examine the impact of COVID-19 as a new research topic on the presence of women in key authorship positions in biomedical research. We determine author's gender based on the names listed on their scientific publications and analyze the changes in the composition of the scientific teams after the COVID-19 outbreak. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach, we find that although the share of female authorships has increased overall, women are less likely to be first or last authors (the most prestigious positions) on COVID-19-related research papers and more likely to be found in middle author positions. Stay-at-home mandates, the journal importance and funding opportunities do not fully account for the decline of women in key author positions. The main difference in first authorship is due to the composition of the team and the experience of the lead authors in COVID-19 related research. First authorship by women declined after teams of novices emerged, where lead authors have no prior experience in COVID-related research. Discretionality in first-author appointments for newcomers, combined with high pressure to publish quickly, may have led to discriminatory biases. Conversely, there may also be differences in risk-taking attitudes in doing research in unfamiliar domains. Monitoring gender inequality in scientific production is crucial for reducing gender inequalities and for implementing timely policies that ensure equal access to emerging research topics.