Closing the Gender Gap: Increased Female Authorship in AJR and Radiology

The purpose of this study was to evaluate gender differences in the authorship of original research articles by radiologists in two major American radiology journals, AJR and Radiology. In a retrospective bibliometric analysis, all original articles published in AJR and Radiology during three 3-year periods (1991-1993, 2001-2003, and 2011-2013) were reviewed to determine the gender of the first and corresponding radiology authors. In addition, radiologic subspecialty and country of the authors were also abstracted from each article. The gender of the first and corresponding authors could be determined for 10,043 of 10,228 authors (98.2%) of original research in radiology. Between the periods 1991-1993 and 2011-2013, the percentage of female authors significantly increased: from 20.4% to 34.4%, respectively, among first authors (p < 0.0001); and from 18.0% to 28.7%, respectively, among corresponding authors (p < 0.0001). There was a significant correlation between the gender of the first and corresponding authors (p < 0.05). In the 2011-2013 period, the proportion of female authors was highest in breast (64.2%) and pediatric (48.2%) and lowest in vascular and interventional (18.5%) and cardiac (21.0%) subspecialties. The proportion of female authors was the highest in The Netherlands (47.3%), South Korea (37.9%), France (36.2%), and Italy (33.6%). There was a significant increase in the female authorship of original research articles in two major American radiology journals between the periods 1991-1993 and 2011-2013.