Business & Profession Professional Development

Are Women Publishing More Now Than Ever?

More women have been entering the profession for decades – but is that being reflected in the literature?

Mark Hillen | 01/12/2015

Over recent decades, ever-greater numbers of women have entered the medical profession. A group of researchers in the US and Mexico decided to determine if that has filtered through into the literature, comparing the authorship gender balance of publications in three high-impact ophthalmology journals over two time periods, a decade apart: 2000, and 2010.

Three journals assessed: Ophthalmology, Am. J. Ophthalmol., and JAMA Ophthalmology

Excluded
• Single case reports

Reviewed
Original articles
• Clinical and laboratory sciences
• Short series
• Meta-analyses
• Editorials

For 2000 and 2010, starting from Jan 1st, review ≥ 100 articles

Assess authors’ gender via web searches + e-mailing authors

12 excluded – no gender data

Business & Profession Professional Development

1. V. Franco-Cardenas, J. Rosenberg, A. Ramirez et al., “Decadelong Profile of Women in Ophthalmic Publications”, JAMA Ophthalmol. Epub ahead of print (2014). doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2014.4447

Mark Hillen

I spent seven years as a medical writer, writing primary and review manuscripts, congress presentations and marketing materials for numerous – and mostly German – pharmaceutical companies. Prior to my adventures in medical communications, I was a Wellcome Trust PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.