Analysis of gender representation, authorship inflation, and institutional affiliation in abstract acceptance: a 5-year study

Joseph S Puthumana; Iman F Khan; Rafael Felix P Tiongco; Siam K Rezwan; Rena Atayeva; Jeffry T Nahmias; Sarah A Jung; Carisa M Cooney

doi:10.1007/s44186-023-00105-9

Analysis of gender representation, authorship inflation, and institutional affiliation in abstract acceptance: a 5-year study

Global Surg Educ. 2023;2(1):37. doi: 10.1007/s44186-023-00105-9. Epub 2023 Feb 18.

Authors

Joseph S Puthumana¹, Iman F Khan¹, Rafael Felix P Tiongco¹, Siam K Rezwan¹, Rena Atayeva^{1

2}, Jeffry T Nahmias³, Sarah A Jung⁴, Carisa M Cooney¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 601 North Caroline Street, Suite 8161, Baltimore, MD 21287 USA.
² Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA USA.
³ Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma, Burns, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA USA.
⁴ Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI USA.

Abstract

Purpose: Our goals were to characterize associations of author number, author gender, and institutional affiliation on ratings and acceptances of abstracts submitted to one surgical education conference over 5 years.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all abstracts submitted between 2017 and 2021 to the annual meeting of the Association for Surgical Education (ASE). Abstract data included average rater scores, acceptance status, author lists, and institutional affiliations. We cross-referenced last author affiliation with top-40 National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded institutions and used a gender determination software to code first and last author genders.

Results: We analyzed 1,162 abstracts. Higher reviewer scores demonstrated positive, weak associations with more authors [r(1160) = 0.191, p < 0.001] and institutions [r(1160) = 0.182, p < 0.001]. Significantly higher scores were noted for abstracts with last authors affiliated with top-40 NIH-funded institutions [4.18 (SD 0.96) vs. 3.72 (SD 1.12), p < 0.001]. Women were first authors (51.8%) (n = 602) and last authors (35.4%) (n = 411) of the time. Abstracts were rated significantly higher with women rather than men as first authors [3.98 (SD 0.99) vs. 3.82 (SD 1.12), p = 0.011] or last [4.01 (SD 1.04) vs. 3.82 (SD 1.10), p = 0.005]. Across all years, abstracts were accepted more often as podium or plenary presentations when submitted by women first [n = 279, 59.7% (p = 0.002)] or last [n = 183, 38.4% (p = 0.095)] authors.

Conclusion: Abstracts whose last authors were affiliated with top-40 NIH-funded institutions received significantly higher scores, possibly indicating increased tangible or intangible resources contributing to research efforts. Abstracts with women first and last authors scored higher and were more frequently invited for plenary and podium presentations.

Keywords: Authorship inflation; Gender; Surgical education; Surgical research.

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