School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations
Trends in Authorship Demographics of Publications in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics from 1985 to 2015: A 30-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Pediatric Orthopaedic Literature.
Poster Number
189
Document Type
Poster
Status
Medical Student
Abstract Category
Clinical Specialties
Keywords
Pediatric orthopaedics, authorship, publication, gender
Publication Date
Spring 2018
Abstract
Purpose: Academic authorship has increasingly gained importance with established criteria for professional promotion. Although authorship demographic trends have been studied in other surgical and medical specialties, authorship trends have not been studied for publications in pediatric orthopedic surgery. This study sought to elucidate the evolution of authorship demographics in a major pediatric orthopedic surgery journal.
Methods: The number of authors, gender of the first and last authors, academic degrees, and geographic origin of the corresponding author in The Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics in the years 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015 were recorded. Only original, published work was analyzed. Statistical analyses with p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. The Monte Carlo method of the Cochran-Armitage trend test was used for statistical analysis of authorship trends and to evaluate the changing authorship demographics in relation to time elapsed over the 30 year period.
Results: A total of 597 articles were reviewed. The mean number of authors per article increased significantly from 3 in 1985 to 4.8 in 2015 (p<0.0001). Female first authorship significantly increased over the study period from 7.2% in 1985 to 27.0% of publications in 2015 (p<0.0001). There was no difference in the proportion of first authors who held an MD/PhD, PhD, Master’s or Bachelor’s degree since 1985. There was a significant decrease in proportion of the number of last authors with solely an MD (p=0.001), with an increase in proportion of the number of last authors with an MD/PhD during the study period (p=0.002). During the study period, a decrease in the proportion of first authors who held solely an MD was seen. There has been significant growth in publications originating outside of “North America,” with 74.5% originating from “North America” in 1985, decreasing to 71.0% in 2015 (p=0.031).
Discussion: There has been a significant increase in the number of authors per article in The Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. Similar to other studies, we noted increased number of authors, shifts in the degrees most commonly held by authors, and a greater representation of international authors in the pediatric orthopedic surgery literature. In addition, the proportion of manuscripts primarily authored by female authors has increased significantly in the past thirty years, with the largest increase occurring between 1995 and 2015.
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Trends in Authorship Demographics of Publications in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics from 1985 to 2015: A 30-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Pediatric Orthopaedic Literature.
Purpose: Academic authorship has increasingly gained importance with established criteria for professional promotion. Although authorship demographic trends have been studied in other surgical and medical specialties, authorship trends have not been studied for publications in pediatric orthopedic surgery. This study sought to elucidate the evolution of authorship demographics in a major pediatric orthopedic surgery journal.
Methods: The number of authors, gender of the first and last authors, academic degrees, and geographic origin of the corresponding author in The Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics in the years 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015 were recorded. Only original, published work was analyzed. Statistical analyses with p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. The Monte Carlo method of the Cochran-Armitage trend test was used for statistical analysis of authorship trends and to evaluate the changing authorship demographics in relation to time elapsed over the 30 year period.
Results: A total of 597 articles were reviewed. The mean number of authors per article increased significantly from 3 in 1985 to 4.8 in 2015 (p<0.0001). Female first authorship significantly increased over the study period from 7.2% in 1985 to 27.0% of publications in 2015 (p<0.0001). There was no difference in the proportion of first authors who held an MD/PhD, PhD, Master’s or Bachelor’s degree since 1985. There was a significant decrease in proportion of the number of last authors with solely an MD (p=0.001), with an increase in proportion of the number of last authors with an MD/PhD during the study period (p=0.002). During the study period, a decrease in the proportion of first authors who held solely an MD was seen. There has been significant growth in publications originating outside of “North America,” with 74.5% originating from “North America” in 1985, decreasing to 71.0% in 2015 (p=0.031).
Discussion: There has been a significant increase in the number of authors per article in The Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. Similar to other studies, we noted increased number of authors, shifts in the degrees most commonly held by authors, and a greater representation of international authors in the pediatric orthopedic surgery literature. In addition, the proportion of manuscripts primarily authored by female authors has increased significantly in the past thirty years, with the largest increase occurring between 1995 and 2015.