Abstract
Background
Gender disparities still exist in the field of academic surgery. Women face additional
obstacles obtaining high-ranking, surgical academia positions compared to men, and
this may extend to the appointment of editorial board members. We aim to evaluate
the gender distribution of editorial board members, associate editors, and editors-in-chief
of top US surgical journals and to recommend interventions, which can promote equitable
gender representation among editorial boards.
Methods
The study is a cross-sectional analysis using publicly available data regarding the
number and proportion of female editorial board members, associate editors, and editors-in-chief
from 42 US surgical journals. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were performed
with significance defined as P < .05.
Results
Of 2,836 editorial board members from 42 US surgical journals, 420 (14.8%) were women.
Of 881 associate editors, 118 (13.3%) were women. Only 2/42 (4.8%) of editors-in-chief
were women. The mean proportions of female editorial board members and associate editors
were 14.5% and 19.5%, respectively. No significant associations were found between
the 2019 Scimago Journal & Country Rank indicator nor the 2019 impact factor and the
proportion of female editorial board members and female associate editors after adjusting
for author H-index.
Conclusion
Gender disparities are evident in academic surgery, and women comprise a minority
of US surgical editorial board members, associate editors, and editors-in-chief. The
implementation of women mentorship from senior faculty on behalf of senior residents
and junior faculty, as well as journal-facilitated pipeline programs, can diversify
editorial board members by increasing women representation and reduce disparities
in surgical journal editorial boards.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 22, 2021
Accepted:
December 18,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Gender distribution among surgical journals’ editorial boards: Empowering women surgeon scientistsSurgeryVol. 170Issue 1
- PreviewI read with great interest the recent article titled “Gender Distribution Among Surgical Journals’ Editorial Boards: Empowering Women Surgeon Scientists” published in Surgery by Ehrlich et al.1 This study reported the gender distribution of editorial board members of 42 US surgical journals. Only 420 (14.8%) of the 2,836 editorial board members were women, highlighting the gender disparity in surgical academia. I would like to congratulate the authors for raising the topic of gender disparity within surgical academia.
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- Gender distribution in the editorial boards of surgical journals: A snapshot from Western EuropeSurgeryVol. 170Issue 4
- PreviewWe read with great interest the recent publication by Ehrlich et al pondering contemporary gender inequalities in academic surgery.1 We wish to reiterate the authors’ concern that gender inequalities in the field of academic surgery still exist, as supported by the paucity of women involved in the editorial board of several American top surgical journals. In order to offer a wider perspective of this matter, we investigated the percentage of female editorial board members of Western European surgical journals.
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