Females credited with first authorship in prominent Australian medical journals has increased from 32% to 37% between 2005 and 2018, a new UNSW study has revealed.
Research published today in the Medical Journal of Australia examined eight journals associated with the peak bodies of Australian medicine to characterise gender patterns in Australian medical journals.
While the number of females credited with first authorship increased, the rate of female last authorship has remained unchanged at around 28%.
First authorship on publications is generally granted to the author performing the largest portion of the study, often done by more junior researchers, and last authorship is given to directing senior authors.
Dr Hannah Ryan from UNSW Medicine, a junior doctor at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney and an author on the study, said these findings were significant, particularly in light of the recent findings on gender discrepancies in medical leadership. Examining Australian patterns of authorship may also help identify barriers to the academic advancement of women in medicine.
"Academic research is important for obtaining tenure and promotion in medicine. In 2015 41% of Australian medical specialists were female, but women only represented 28% of doctors in senior or leadership positions."
"The underrepresentation of women in academic research may explain part of the discrepancy between women and men in medical leadership roles," said Dr Ryan.
"From 2005 to 2018, the proportion of female doctors in Australia increased from 33% to 43%. What is interesting is that this increased female representation may account for greater female authorship at junior levels but it has not resulted in a greater proportion of females in senior authorship positions."
"The under-representation of females in academia may be both a cause and an effect of their reduced progression to senior clinical and academic roles."
"Our results show promising increases in female academic representation and opens questions into the reasons for the inertia in senior authorship." said Dr Ryan.
