Increase in the percentage of female authors in the international psychiatric literature since 1970
Publication type
journal article
Publication date
2008
Author(s)
Opgenhaffen, M.
Vansteelandt, K.
Germeau, P.
Pieters, G.
Language
Dutch
Discipline(s)
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The participation of women in medicine and psychiatry is increasing. AIM: To find out whether this trend is also refected in the international psychiatric literature. METHOD: We took steps to discover the gender of the first and the last author as listed below the title of 290 articles sampled at random jrom three leading psychiatricjournals published between 1970 and 2007. RESULTS: Women turned out to be underrepresented as the first or last author of these psychiatric articles; this conclusion was also found to apply to the first and last authors who were medical authors. Whereas the proportion of female first authors had increased significantly since 1970 and had reached almost 50% in 2007, there had been no such inaease as far as last authors were concerned. CONCLUSION: In the psychiatric literature studied, the proportion of female first authors rose to almost 50%.
Journal
Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie
ISSN
0303-7339
Volume
50
Issue
7
Pagination
419-423