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Original research
Gender distribution in surgical pathology journal publications and editorial boards
  1. Minh Anh Nguyen1,2,
  2. Samer Yousef3,
  3. Ruta Gupta1,2,
  4. Catriona McKenzie1,2
  1. 1 Department of Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2 New South Wales Health Pathology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  3. 3 Department of Anatomical Pathology and Cytopathology, Royal Brisbane and Woman's Hospital Health Service District, Herston, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Catriona McKenzie, Department of Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia; catriona.mckenzie{at}health.nsw.gov.au

Abstract

Aims To investigate trends in representation of women among authors and editorial boards of surgical pathology journals over the last two decades.

Secondary aims: to identify barriers and potential solutions.

Methods The names and gender of first, middle, last authors and editorial board members were obtained from original articles from seven pathology journals from various geopolitical regions in 2002, 2011 and 2021. The proportion of women first, middle, last authors and editorial board members were compared over time.

Results 1097 publications and 8012 individual authors were extracted. In 2002, 2011 and 2021, respectively, the percentage of women first authors were 28.3% (257 of 907), 31.9% (566 of 1773) and 41.1% (1421 of 3457); women middle authorship rates were 30.0% (159 of 530), 32.8% (375 of 1145) and 40.9% (1067 of 2609) and women last authors were 18.0% (34 of 188), 26.0% (82 of 315) and 36.0% (152 of 422). Women representation on editorial boards has increased (11.3%, 15.8%, 26.5%), but of the chief editors, there was only one woman in 2021, while all were men in 2002 and 2011.

Conclusions To our knowledge, this study is the first to document under-representation of women among authors and editorial boards of surgical pathology journals. While women representation has increased over time, predominance of men remains relative to workforce proportions. Our findings are comparable to those from other medical fields and prompt the need to investigate the underlying causes for this imbalance and implement strategies to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in academic surgical pathology.

  • Pathology, Surgical
  • Demography
  • Education, Medical

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp-2023-208915

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request.

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor L C Collins.

    • Twitter @CatrionaMckenz5

    • Contributors MAN designed the work, monitored data collection, drafted and revised the paper and is guarantor. SY designed and performed the data collection, and analysed and cleaned the data. RG initiated and designed the work, and revised the draft paper. CM initiated and designed the work, revised the draft paper and is guarantor.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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