Analysis of Author Gender in the Pediatric Orthopaedic Literature from 2011 to 2020

Orthopaedic surgery remains a male-dominated specialty. To date there has not been a focused analysis of gender in authorship within the pediatric orthopaedic literature.

The electronic table of contents from 2011 to 2020 of 3 major pediatric orthopaedic journals [Journal of Children's Orthopaedics (JCO), Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics (JPO), and Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics Part B (JPO-B)] were reviewed. Publications were reviewed for the number of articles with at least 1 female author and the number of articles with women listed as first authors. These were compared over the 10-year study period, and by individual year of publication. Statistical analysis included a general linear model with factorial one-way anslysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc testing.

A total of 4097 articles were reviewed. In 2020, there was a significantly higher percentage of articles with a female author when compared with 2011 (64% to 42%, P=0.010). A female was listed as first author in significantly more publications in 2020 as compared with 2011 (23% to 10%, P=0.031). During the 10-year study period, the highest mean proportion of articles with at least 1 female author was seen in JPO (60%), with similar findings in JCO (55%). Significantly fewer articles in JPO-B contained a female author (37%, P=0.001). The highest percentage of publications with a female first author across 10 years was in JCO (22%), followed by JPO (20%). Significantly fewer articles with a female first author were found in JPO-B (9%, P=0.001).

There is an increasing proportion of publications in the pediatric orthopaedic literature with female authors and female first authors from 2011 to 2020. In addition, there was a statistical difference in female authorship when comparing specific publications, which should be investigated further.

Level IV.