[Womeninmedicine] eLife publication: COVID-19 medical papers have fewer women first authors than expected

[Weisz, Ora Anna]

In case there was any doubt....
Hang in there everyone!
Ora


https://elifesciences.org/articles/58807?utm_source=content_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=fulltext&utm_campaign=22-June-20-elife-alert<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Felifesciences.org%2Farticles%2F58807%3Futm_source%3Dcontent_alert%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_content%3Dfulltext%26utm_campaign%3D22-June-20-elife-alert&data=02%7C01%7C%7C8bc4cb4e6bce4896f1db08d816ed5dea%7C9ef9f489e0a04eeb87cc3a526112fd0d%7C1%7C0%7C637284556029828788&sdata=GH%2Fb4zMbvL%2By9d3z%2Fue4FzCtzm5FTaxmZy8tmg8A0Oo%3D&reserved=0>
COVID-19 medical papers have
fewer women first authors than
expected
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in school closures and distancing requirements that
have disrupted both work and family life for many. Concerns exist that these disruptions caused by
the pandemic may not have influenced men and women researchers equally. Many medical journals
have published papers on the pandemic, which were generated by researchers facing the challenges
of these disruptions. Here we report the results of an analysis that compared the gender distribution
of authors on 1893 medical papers related to the pandemic with that on papers published in the same
journals in 2019, for papers with first authors and last authors from the United States. Using mixed-
effects regression models, we estimated that the proportion of COVID-19 papers with a woman first
author was 19% lower than that for papers published in the same journals in 2019, while our
comparisons for last authors and overall proportion of women authors per paper were inconclusive. A
closer examination suggested that women's representation as first authors of COVID-19 research was
particularly low for papers published in March and April 2020. Our findings are consistent with the
idea that the research productivity of women, especially early-career women, has been affected more
than the research productivity of men.
JENS PETER ANDERSEN, MATHIAS WULLUM NIELSEN, NICOLE L SIMONE,
RESA E LEWISS AND RESHMA JAGSI*


_____________________________________________________________________
Ora A. Weisz, PhD | Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, and Clinical and Translational Science
Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Department of Medicine
Associate Dean for Faculty Development, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Faculty Excellence, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences
Renal-Electrolyte Division | 978.1 Scaife Hall | 3550 Terrace St. | Pittsburgh PA 15261
Tel: 412-383-8891 | Email: weisz at pitt.edu<mailto:weisz at pitt.edu>

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