(0315) Female Authorship Within Otolaryngology: An Updated and Widened View

Introduction: Women have historically been underrepresented in surgical subspecialties like otolaryngology, though this is improving over time. Authorship of original research is a key metric in the progression of an academic career; thus, it is important to assay the progress in this domain. This study provides an update to previous reports of female authorship, as well as comparison amongst general and subspecialized journals.

Methods: Publications from the top 10 peer-reviewed otolaryngology academic journals as ranked by impact factor were reviewed for gender of authors of original research articles published in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022. The number of first and senior female authors were tallied. Trends in gender breakdown were compared over time and among journals using chi squared tests and the Cochrane-Armitage trend test.

Results: A total of 9,760 articles were found across all journals. Of them, 3,106 (31%) listed a female first or single author, and 1,823 (18.7%) listed a female senior author. The percentage of female first or single authors increased from 19% in 2007 to 39.1% in 2022 and for senior authors from 21.8% to 26.2%. Female first/single authorship increased significantly over this time period (p = 0.03) overall, in particular for rhinology (20% to 39%, p < 0.01) and the Journal of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (15.4% to 27.2%; p < 0.01). Ear and Hearing was the only journal to consistently publish more women as first author for all years. Senior authorship did not increase significantly though it did improve for all journals analyzed.

Conclusions: Female authorship is increasing over time. First and single authorship is advancing more rapidly, possibly reflecting more female trainees advancing their careers. Despite this growth, more work is needed to support female representation in academic publications.