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

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
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