Gender disparities across editorial roles in radiology journals; A cross-sectional analysis

Gender disparities persist in academic radiology, particularly in leadership roles. However, gender representation across radiology journal editorial boards has not been comprehensively evaluated. This study evaluated gender representation across editorial roles in radiology journals and to identify the factors associated with gender disparity.

In this cross-sectional retrospective study, radiology journals listed in the Web of Science Core Collection were screened between November 2025 and February 2026. Editors were categorized by role, and gender was determined using publicly available information. Journal characteristics, including indexing status, quartile, geographic origin, subspecialty, publishing model, impact factor, and publication duration were recorded. Gender distributions were compared using chi-square tests. Factors associated with gender disparity were evaluated using logistic regression.

A total of 166 journals comprising 9506 editors were included. Women were underrepresented across all editorial roles, accounting for 21.0% of editors-in-chief and 26.6% of editorial board members. Female representation differed significantly according to journal characteristics (all p < 0.05). In multivariable analysis, emerging sources citation indexing (OR:0.14; 95% CI, 0.04-0.48, p = 0.002), society-association journal status (OR:0.27; 95% CI, 0.10-0.74, p = 0.011), and longer publication duration (OR:0.30; 95% CI, 0.10-0.89, p = 0.031) were associated with lower odds of gender disparity. Absence of a female editor-in-chief was independently associated with higher odds of gender disparity (OR:4.66; 95% CI, 1.87-11.63, p = 0.001).

Women remain underrepresented in editorial roles in radiology journals, with variation associated with journal characteristics and leadership composition.