Assessment of Gender Diversity among Authors in the Journal of Turkish Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Publications.

Background: The number of female cardiovascular surgeons has been steadily increasing over the years in Turkey. The number of female members in the Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery was 57 (6.95% of the total number of surgeons) in 2010 and increased to 321 (13.97%) in 2022. It is unknown whether the contribution of female cardiovascular surgeons to the scientific literature has paralleled this increase. The aim of our study is to elucidate the proportion of female physician contributions in the publications of the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Method: Between 2010 and 2022, a comprehensive review was conducted on the original articles, reviews, and case reports published in the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, focusing specifically on the field of cardiovascular surgery. The analysis involved determining the total number of authors, differentiating between female and male authors, and documenting whether female authors held positions as either the first or last author. In cases where gender identification based on names was inconclusive (unisex names), gender verification was performed by accessing the official websites of the authors' affiliated institutions. Authors who were not cardiovascular surgeons, publications in the field of thoracic surgery, and articles submitted from sources outside of Turkey were excluded from the study. Results: A total of 1,112 publications from the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery were included in the study, encompassing 4,393 authors. Among these authors, 6.65% (n=292) were female. Female authors were identified as the first author in 65 articles (5.85%) and as the last author in 48 articles (4.31%). The summary of female surgeon representation within the Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery, including overall contributions and proportions of first and last authorship among women, is presented in Table 1. Conclusion: Despite the increasing number of female surgeons, it is observed that the contribution of female surgeons in publications remains relatively stable and lags behind the overall proportion. The reasons for the relatively low contribution of female authors to scientific literature should be examined, and authors should be encouraged to contribute more to the field of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]