Analysis of gender in the authorship of the scientific publications of the Acta Otorrinolaringológica Española in the last decade

Abstract

Introduction: In recent decades, progress has been made in tackling inequality between men and women, encouraging publications that analyse and provide recommendations to eliminate this issue. The aim of this study is to analyse the gender differences in the authorship of the studies published in the journal Acta Otorrinolaringológica Española.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of issues published between January 2010 and December 2019, including number of authors (total, men and women), type and year of publication, institution and country (first, second and last author), and area of specialisation. Women's participation was calculated based on female/male ratio, trend and associated factors.

Results: A total of 615 articles with 2,841 authors (1,017 women and 1,824 men) from Spain were collected. A total of 244 (39.7%) women and 371 (60.3%) men were listed as first authors (p = .879), 245 (39.84%) women and 370 (60.16%) men as second authors (p = .919), and 137 (22.28%) women and 478 (77.72%) men as final signatories (p < .000). All the ratios calculated were below the recommended figures.

Discussion: The participation of female authors in the scientific production of Acta Otorrinolaringológica Española is acceptable, following a similar distribution to the current number of female ENT specialists. Further efforts are needed to increase the number of final signatories and to change the decreasing trend recorded over the last decade.

Keywords: Authorship; Autoría; Desigualdad de género; ENT research; Gender inequality; Investigación en Otorrinolaringología; Medical publication; Publicación médica.