Geographic Mapping of Gender Disparities in Authorship of Cardiovascular Literature.

Background: Women in cardiology experience considerable gender disparities in publications, which hinders their career advancements to higher faculty and senior leadership positions. However, the extent of these disparities across different types of cardiovascular literature is not well understood.
Objectives: We investigated gender differences in authorship across various cardiovascular publications over a decade and examined geographic variations in the representation of women authors.
Methods: All papers published from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2019, in 4 major cardiovascular journals (Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association Cardiology, and Nature Reviews Cardiology) were reviewed.
Results: Of the 18,535 papers with 111,562 authors, 20.6% of the authors were women, and 47.7% of the papers had no women authors. Over 10 years, the proportion of women authors remained low (20.7% in 2010 to 21.4% in 2019), with the lowest proportion in editorial papers (14.8%) and the highest in research papers (21.8%). More women as first (34.6%) and last (47.6%) authors were affiliated with institutions in the United States compared with other countries. The proportion of women middle-order authors was higher on papers with women as first authors (29.4% vs 20.5%) or last authors (30.6% vs 21.3%), compared with papers with men as first or last authors, respectively.
Conclusions: Over the past decade, the proportion of women authors across all article types in major cardiovascular journals remained low. A call to action is needed to promote women in cardiology and provide them with equitable opportunities.
Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures Dr D.D. Wang is a consultant for Abbott, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, Materialise, and NeoChord; and has received research grant support from Boston Scientific assigned to her employer, Henry Ford Hospital. Dr T.Y. Wang has received research grants to the Duke Clinical Research Institute from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boston Scientific, Artivion (formerly Cryolife), Chiesi, Merck, Portola, and Regeneron; and has received consulting honoraria from AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Artivion (formerly Cryolife), CSL Behring, and Novartis. Dr R. Mehran has received grants from Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Beth Israel Deaconess, Bristol Myers Squibb, CSL Behring, DSI, Medtronic, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and OrbusNeich; has received personal fees from Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, Medscape/WebMD, Siemens Medical Solutions, PLx Opco (dba PLx Pharma), Roivant Sciences, Sanofi, Medtelligence, and Janssen Scientific Affairs; has received other compensation from Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed, Bristol Myers Squibb, Claret Medical, Elixir Medical, The Medicines Company, Spectranetics/Philips/Volcano Corp, and Watermark Research Partners; and has received nonfinancial support from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals. All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.
(Copyright © 2024 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)