Schumacher C, Eliades T, Koletsi D. Gender gap in authorship within published orthodontic research. An observational study on evidence and time-trends over a decade. Eur J Orthod 2021; DOI: 10.1093/ejo/cjab036. Online ahead of print.

A gender gap related to orthodontic research publications is persistent, with participation of women either as senior, or as leading authors, being suboptimal.

This study assessed the representation of female authors in orthodontic research publications. An electronic search was performed within three major orthodontic journals to identify all types of research articles published within two distinct year cohorts, 2008-2010 and 2018-2020. The outcomes of interest pertained to proportion of women in senior (last) and leading (first) position, and fraction of overall participation in the author list. A total of 2,539 articles were eligible, with an overall number of contributing authors being 11,608. For seniority in authorship, 30% of the publications within 2018-2020 were attributed to female authors, while 26% was identified in 2008-2010. For leading (first) authorship, the respective percentages were 45% within 2018-2020 and 35% in 2008-2010. The median proportion of female authors was 33%. Consistent efforts should be set in place to facilitate more equal representation of women in research publishing.