IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0261209.html

Academic medicine’s glass ceiling: Author’s gender in top three medical research journals impacts probability of future publication success

Author

Listed:
  • John E Krstacic
  • Brendan M Carr
  • Ashutosh R Yaligar
  • Annet S Kuruvilla
  • Joshua S Helali
  • Jamie Saragossi
  • Chencan Zhu
  • Robert Hutnik
  • Mohammad Noubani
  • Jie Yang
  • Henry J Tannous
  • A Laurie W Shroyer

Abstract

Introduction: In December 2017, Lancet called for gender inequality investigations. Holding other factors constant, trends over time for significant author (i.e., first, second, last or any of these authors) publications were examined for the three highest-impact medical research journals (i.e., New England Journal of Medicine [NEJM], Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], and Lancet). Materials and methods: Using randomly sampled 2002-2019 MEDLINE original publications (n = 1,080; 20/year/journal), significant author-based and publication-based characteristics were extracted. Gender assignment used internet-based biographies, pronouns, first names, and photographs. Adjusting for author-specific characteristics and multiple publications per author, generalized estimating equations tested for first, second, and last significant author gender disparities. Results: Compared to 37.23% of 2002 – 2019 U.S. medical school full-time faculty that were women, women’s first author publication rates (26.82% overall, 15.83% NEJM, 29.38% Lancet, and 35.39% JAMA; all p

Suggested Citation

  • John E Krstacic & Brendan M Carr & Ashutosh R Yaligar & Annet S Kuruvilla & Joshua S Helali & Jamie Saragossi & Chencan Zhu & Robert Hutnik & Mohammad Noubani & Jie Yang & Henry J Tannous & A Laurie W, 2022. "Academic medicine’s glass ceiling: Author’s gender in top three medical research journals impacts probability of future publication success," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0261209
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261209
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261209&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0261209?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:liv:livedp:202001 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Lorenzo Ductor & Sanjeev Goyal & Anja Prummer, 2023. "Gender and Collaboration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1366-1378, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chih-Sheng Hsieh & Michael D König & Xiaodong Liu & Christian Zimmermann, 2022. "Collaboration in Bipartite Networks," Working Papers 2202, National Taiwan University, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2022.
    2. Bruns, Stephan B. & Doucouliagos, Anthony & Doucouliagos, Hristos & König, Johannes & Stanley, T.D. & Zigova, Katarina, 2026. "The delayed acceptance of female research in economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Josep Maria Argilés-Bosch & Yuliya Kasperskaya & Josep Garcia-Blandon & Diego Ravenda, 2025. "The interplay of author and editor gender in acceptance delays: evidence from accounting journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1939-1965, March.
    4. Kevin Devereux, 2021. "Returns to Teamwork and Professional Networks: Evidence from Economic Research," Working Papers 202101, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Amano-Patiño, Noriko & Faraglia, Elisa & Giannitsarou, Chryssi, 2025. "Economics coauthorships in the aftermath of MeToo," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    6. Nicole M. Fortin, 2025. "Gender differences in career progression among PhDs in Economics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(3), pages 806-830, August.
    7. Caviggioli, Federico & Colombelli, Alessandra & Ravetti, Chiara, 2022. "Peers and stars: the role of gender among coinventors," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 202201, University of Turin.
    8. James J. Heckman & Sidharth Moktan, 2020. "Publishing and promotion in economics - The tyranny of the Top Five," CEPR Press Book Chapters, in: Sebastian Galliani & Ugo Panizza (ed.), Publishing and Measuring Success in Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 23-32, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    9. Davies, Benjamin, 2022. "Sex-based sorting among economists: Evidence from the NBER," SocArXiv zeb7a, Center for Open Science.
    10. Lepinteur, Anthony & Nistico, Roberto, 2025. "‘Based on Admin Data!’: How Administrative Data Fosters Young Economists’ Career," IZA Discussion Papers 17906, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Camilo Garcia-Jimeno & Sahar Parsa, 2024. "Cultural Change Through Writing Style: Gendered Pronoun Use in the Economics Profession," Working Paper Series WP 2024-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    12. Su, Yang & Brooks, Chris & Lucey, Brian & Urquhart, Andrew, 2026. "Journal ratings changes: Implications for author diversity and research characteristics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    13. MinSub Kim & Joyce J. Chen & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2023. "Gender pay gaps in economics: A deeper look at institutional factors," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(4), pages 471-486, July.
    14. Datta, Deepa D. & Tzur-Ilan, Nitzan, 2025. "Gender Gaps in the Federal Reserve System," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    15. Antonio Cabrales & Lorenzo Ductor & Ericka Rascon-Ramirez & Ismael Rodriguez-Lara, 2025. "Gender Stereotypes and Homophily in Team Formation," Working Papers DTE 648, CIDE, División de Economía.
    16. Laura Hospido & Carlos Sanz, 2019. "Gender gaps in the evaluation of research: evidence from submissions to economics conferences (Updated March 2020)," Working Papers 1918, Banco de España, revised Mar 2020.
    17. Rose, Michael E. & Georg, Co-Pierre, 2021. "What 5,000 acknowledgements tell us about informal collaboration in financial economics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(6).
    18. Tahmooresnejad, Leila & Turkina, Ekaterina, 2026. "Gender-related aspects of invention networks: A firm-level analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    19. Sule Alan & Elif Bodur & Elif Kubilay & Ipek Mumcu, 2021. "Social Status in Student Networks and Implications for Perceived Social Climate in Schools," CESifo Working Paper Series 9095, CESifo.
    20. Deepa Dhume Datta & Robert J. Vigfusson, 2024. "Measuring Inclusion: Gender and Coauthorship at the Federal Reserve Board," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-091, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0261209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.