Although women more often study medicine than men, there continues to be a disparity in the representation of women across medicine, including in editor positions at major medical journals. In a recent issue of Academic Medicine, authors compared the representation of women in editor-in-chief and editorial board member positions in 2011 and 2021. They analyzed 86 journals, including the top five ranked journals by Journal Impact Factor in each of 12 medical disciplines in 2021. The authors collected the names and gender information of the editors-in-chief and editorial board members at these journals, using information provided by the journals and a Google search. They compared results across years (2021 vs 2011), editor positions, disciplines, Journal Impact Factors, and ranks. Almost 25% of the 90 editors-in-chief were women in 2021 compared with 16% in 2011. Of the 6,285 editorial board members, 1,756 were women (28%) in 2021 compared with 719 of 4,112 (18%) in 2011—an increase of 10%. Journals with women editors-in-chief gained 3.5 ranks and 9.1 points in Journal Impact Factor on average over this 10-year period, compared with no gain in rank and an increase of 4.7 points in Journal Impact Factor for journals with men editors-in-chief. In almost all evaluated disciplines and editor positions, there was an increase in the percentage of women at top-ranked medical journals over the 10-year period. The authors showed this increase but concluded that further improvements are needed to accelerate the currently slow rate of change in these positions to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion for women in medicine.
You are here: Home / New investigators / Newsletter / News from the world: Trends in representation of women in editor positions at major medical journals. By Petar Milovanovic