Female authorship trends in high-impact spine surgery journals

The objective of this study was to examine the trends in female authorship in high-impact spine journals and identify barriers present for female authors in spine surgery.

A bibliometric analysis of seven spine surgery journals was conducted, covering publications from 2016 to 2021. First and senior author genders were determined using Genderize.io, supplemented by manual verification for ambiguous cases. Geographic and specialty-specific trends were analyzed, focusing on neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery.

Among 11,757 identified first authors and 11,231 identified senior authors, 13.4% of first authors and 9.3% of senior authors were female. Gender concordance analysis showed that with a female senior author, 26.7% of first authors were female compared with 12.5% with male senior authors (p < 0.00001). In 2021, there was no significant difference in the proportion of female senior authors between orthopedic (2.7%) and neurosurgery (1.2%) specialties. Papers with female authors were published in higher-impact factor journals, with the average impact factor for female first authors being 3.08 compared with the male average of 3.02, and for female senior authors, the average impact factor was 3.10 compared with their male counterparts' average of 3.02 (female first authors: p < 0.05, female senior authors: p < 0.001). US publications had fewer female first authors compared with international publications (p < 0.001).

This study underscores the need for targeted strategies to overcome barriers to female participation and advancement in spine surgery. Enhancing mentorship and addressing implicit biases are essential to attract and retain more women in this field, ultimately benefiting the specialty and patient care.