Abstract
Purpose :
Studies in several fields of medicine have found that women published less during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially due to an increase in domestic responsibilities. This study examines whether a similar pattern exists for female authorship in ophthalmology.
In this study, we compared the proportions of female authorship published in high-impact ophthalmology journals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods :
A cross-sectional study analyzing authorship gender of articles published during the COVID-19 pandemic (between July and September 2020) compared to matched articles published in the same journals before the COVID-19 pandemic (between July and September 2019). Gender of first and last author was analyzed using an online gender determination tool.
Results :
A total of 577 articles and 1113 authors were analyzed. There was no significant difference in the average number of publications per male and female author when comparing pre-pandemic to during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a significant increase in the percentage of female first authorship from pre-pandemic (32%) to during the COVID-19 pandemic (40%, p=0.01), but no significant increase in last authorship (p>0.05). When analyzing only research articles, a similar increase in female first authorship was noted when comparing pre-pandemic (31%) to during the COVID-19 pandemic (43%, p=0.02). No significant differences were noted when analyzing editorials (p>0.05).
Conclusions :
While disparities continue to exist between male and female authorship, an increase in female first authorship was noted during the COVID-19 pandemic for overall articles as well as research articles.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.