Women authorship in radiology research in France: An analysis of the last three decades

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the evolution of women authorship in France and to analyze the recent trends of the evolution of gender differences in French academic radiology.

Materials and methods: A retrospective bibliometric analysis was performed by searching for articles published in Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging (Diagn Interv Imaging) and in Journal de Radiologie (J Radiol) in Pubmed over the last three decades. For each of these articles, we determined the gender of the first and last author. The specific radiological field of each article was also determined.

Results: The proportion of women authors has significantly increased from 12% in 1984 to 34% in 2014 (P<0.0001) for the first authors and from 11% (11/96) in 1984 to 20% (38/193) in 2014 for last authors (P =0.03).

Conclusion: Women authorship in Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging has increased over the last years together with the proportion of women first authors. However, the fraction of women last authors is still underrepresented. More women need to become leaders in radiological research to contribute to stimulate women authorship.

Keywords: Academic; Medical writing; Scientific publication; Women authorship.