IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i3p2025-d1043990.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Inequalities in Publications about COVID-19 in Spain: Authorship and Sex-Disaggregated Data

Author

Listed:
  • Marta Jiménez Carrillo

    (Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change, Opik Research Group, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain
    Doctoral Program in Public Health, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain
    Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain)

  • Unai Martín

    (Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change, Opik Research Group, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain
    Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain)

  • Amaia Bacigalupe

    (Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change, Opik Research Group, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain
    Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48080 Leioa, Spain)

Abstract

Gender inequalities in biomedical literature have been widely reported in authorship as well as the scarcity of results that are stratified by sex in the studies. We conducted a bibliometric review of articles on COVID-19 published in the main Spanish medical journals between April 2020 and May 2021. The purpose of this study was to analyse differences in authorship order and composition by sex and their evolution over time, as well as the frequency of sex-disaggregated empirical results and its relationship with the author sex in articles on COVID-19 in the main Spanish biomedical journals. We identified 914 articles and 4921 authors, 57.5% men and 42.5% women. Women accounted for 36.7% of first authors and for 33.7% of last authors. Monthly variation in authorship over the course of the pandemic indicates that women were always less likely to publish as first authors. Only 1.0% of the articles broke down empirical results by sex. Disaggregation of results by sex was significantly more frequent when women were first authors and when women were the majority in the authorship. It is important to make gender inequalities visible in scientific dissemination and to promote gender-sensitive research, which can help to reduce gender bias in clinical studies as well as to design public policies for post-pandemic recovery that are more gender-equitable.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Jiménez Carrillo & Unai Martín & Amaia Bacigalupe, 2023. "Gender Inequalities in Publications about COVID-19 in Spain: Authorship and Sex-Disaggregated Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-10, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2025-:d:1043990
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2025/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2025/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Flaminio Squazzoni & Giangiacomo Bravo & Francisco Grimaldo & Daniel García-Costa & Mike Farjam & Bahar Mehmani, 2021. "Gender gap in journal submissions and peer review during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A study on 2329 Elsevier journals," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(10), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Tatyana Deryugina & Olga Shurchkov & Jenna Stearns, 2021. "COVID-19 Disruptions Disproportionately Affect Female Academics," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 164-168, May.
    3. Giuliana Viglione, 2020. "Are women publishing less during the pandemic? Here’s what the data say," Nature, Nature, vol. 581(7809), pages 365-366, May.
    4. Mathias Wullum Nielsen & Jens Peter Andersen & Londa Schiebinger & Jesper W. Schneider, 2017. "One and a half million medical papers reveal a link between author gender and attention to gender and sex analysis," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 791-796, 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. Kwon, Eunrang & Yun, Jinhyuk & Kang, Jeong-han, 2023. "The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on gendered research productivity and its correlates," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    2. Constantin Bürgi & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2022. "The influence of Covid-19 on publications in economics: bibliometric evidence from five working paper series," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(9), pages 5175-5189, September.
    3. Brad M. Barber & Wei Jiang & Adair Morse & Manju Puri & Heather Tookes & Ingrid M. Werner, 2021. "What Explains Differences in Finance Research Productivity during the Pandemic?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1655-1697, August.
    4. Ryan, M. & Tuke, J. & Hutchinson, M.R. & Spencer, S.J., 2023. "Gender-specific effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on scientific publishing productivity: Impact and resilience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    5. Wenxuan Shi & Renli Wu, 2024. "Women’s strength in science: exploring the influence of female participation on research impact and innovation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4529-4551, July.
    6. Jiao, Yang & Qi, Li & Chen, Zhuo, 2023. "Academic profile of Chinese economists: Productivity, pay, time use, gender differences, and impacts of COVID-19," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Nicolás Ajzenman & Bruno Ferman & Sant’Anna Pedro C., 2023. "Discrimination in the Formation of Academic Networks: A Field Experiment on #EconTwitter," Working Papers 235, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    8. Baron, Justus & Ganglmair, Bernhard & Persico, Nicola & Simcoe, Timothy & Tarantino, Emanuele, 2024. "Representation is not sufficient for selecting gender diversity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(6).
    9. Ayllón, Sara, 2022. "Online teaching and gender bias," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2022. "Inequalities in the times of a pandemic," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 5-41.
    11. Biermann, Marcus, 2024. "Remote talks: Changes to economics seminars during COVID-19," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. Schmal, W. Benedikt & Haucap, Justus & Knoke, Leon, 2023. "The role of gender and coauthors in academic publication behavior," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    13. Marta Peña & Noelia Olmedo-Torre & Olga Alcaraz & Juan A. Chavez-Dominguez & José López & Luis Eduardo Mujica, 2022. "Impact of the Pandemic on the Teaching and Research Staff at a Technological University in Spain: Deepening the Gender Gap," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-26, May.
    14. Davies, Benjamin, 2022. "Gender sorting among economists: Evidence from the NBER," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    15. Seema Singh, 2022. "Investigating the Status of Women Engineers in Education and Employment during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, June.
    16. Hartshorn, Jessica A. & Brockerhoff, Eckehard G. & Klapwijk, Maartje J. & Marzano, Mariella & Ganley, Rebecca J. & Darr, Molly N., 2023. "Attracting and retaining women in forest entomology and forest pathology," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    17. José J. Domínguez & Natalia Montinari, 2021. "Gender Quotas and Task Assignment in Organizations," ThE Papers 21/13, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    18. Jennifer S. Williams & Jenna C. Stone & Stacey A. Ritz & Maureen J. MacDonald, 2023. "Letter to the editor: Laxdal (2023) “The sex gap in sports and exercise medicine research: who does research on females?”," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 4155-4160, July.
    19. Nakajima, Kazuki & Liu, Ruodan & Shudo, Kazuyuki & Masuda, Naoki, 2023. "Quantifying gender imbalance in East Asian academia: Research career and citation practice," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4).
    20. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Ida Mele, 2022. "Impact of Covid-19 on research output by gender across countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 6811-6826, December.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2025-:d:1043990. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.