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The sex gap in sports and exercise medicine research: who does research on females?

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  • Aron Laxdal

    (University of Agder)

Abstract

Females are underrepresented in sports and exercise medicine research, both as authors and as research participants. The aim of this study was therefore to explore who does sports and exercise medicine research on females. All original research articles with female-only samples published in six major sports and exercise medicine journals over a 7-year period (2014–2020; n = 334) were examined. Out of the 2027 authors of the articles in question, 1149 were categorized as male (56.7%) and 850 were categorized as female (41.9%; 28 [1.4%] could not be categorized). A slight majority of the articles had a female as first author (51.5%), while the majority of the last authors were male (62.3%). Binomial tests of proportions revealed that females were overrepresented in all author roles in this sample compared to the field at large, while chi-square tests of proportions indicated minimal variations in female authorship across the studied period. These findings indicate that females are relatively more likely to do research on females than males are, and that the rate of female authorship remained relatively constant over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Aron Laxdal, 2023. "The sex gap in sports and exercise medicine research: who does research on females?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1987-1994, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:128:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-023-04641-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04641-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Maite Barrios & Anna Villarroya & Ángel Borrego, 2013. "Scientific production in psychology: a gender analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(1), pages 15-23, April.
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    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.
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.

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