Proportion of Female Authors Rising in Cardiology Literature

MONDAY, Sept. 17, 2018 -- Over the last two decades, the proportion of women in the first and senior authorship positions has increased in academic cardiology literature, according to an article published in the Aug. 7 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Mariam Asghar, M.B.B.S., from the Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi, Pakistan, and colleagues examined the existence and extent of a gender gap in cardiology literature, as well as its variation over the past two decades. Articles published in six prominent cardiology journals in 1996, 2006, and 2016 were analyzed.

The authors identified 11,529 articles across all six journals. Overall, 16.5 and 9.1 percent of first authors and senior authors, respectively, were female. There were significant increasing trends in female first authorship and senior authorship when analyzed according to year (both P < 0.001). The proportion of female first authors and female senior authors increased by 9.5 and 6.6 percent, respectively, over the 20-year period. There was a significant upward trend in female first authorship in all six journals; the magnitude of change varied in each journal (range, 5.1 to 14.5 percent). Similarly, there was a significant upward trend in the proportion of female senior authorship in five of six journals (range, 4.2 to 8.1 percent).

"The proportion of female first and senior authors is increasing in the cardiology literature," the authors write.