Is Women's Place Beyond the Glass Ceiling? The Gender Gap in Academic Psychiatry Publications in Turkey

In terms of academic positions and activities, women seem to be disadvantaged in various aspects all over the world. Our study aims to investigate the representation of male and female genders in academic psychiatry journals in Turkey.

We included the publications in the academic psychiatry journals indexed in The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, Turkish Academic Network and Information Center, which were published between 2011 and 2020.12 journals were grouped as SCI-E/SSCI (n=4), ESCI (n=4), and other international indexes (n=4). A total of 5179 articles were reviewed.

The ratios of female authors per article, female first author, female correspondence author, and female last author were found to be lower in the SCI-E/SSCI and ESCI groups compared to the other international index groups (p<0.05). In all article types, the rate of women as the last author was lower than the rate of women as the first author (p<0.05).

The paucity of the female authors in the last authorship position and the editorial articles can be interpreted as the glass ceiling effect. To ensure gender equality in academic publications, universities and the editorial boards of journals should fight against gender-based bias and discrimination.