Gender disparities in authorship in European cardio-thoracic journals

Objectives: To evaluate gender authorship in two cardio-thoracic surgical journals. Methods: We performed a bibliometric analysis of all articles published from 2017 to 2022 in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and the Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery. For each article, the gender and academic rank of the first, senior and corresponding author was verified by Internet search, email contact or use of the application Genderize.io. Articles were categorized based on topic, type and country of origin. The Cochran-Armitage test was used to evaluate gender authorship trend over time. Results: 5243 articles were included in the analysis. Women represented 18% of first authors, 7% of senior authors and 13% of corresponding authors and no trend was seen over time. Women represented 16% of first authors and 7% of senior authors in adult cardiac surgery, 23% of first authors and 9% of senior authors in congenital cardiac surgery, and 19% of first authors and 8% of senior authors in thoracic surgery. Male first authors were more frequently full professor (17% vs 5%) and associate professor (16% vs 8%) and male senior authors were more frequently full professor (48% vs 31%) and associate professor (16% vs 8%) compared to female. Conclusions: The proportion of female authors is significantly lower than that of male authors in highest-impact European cardio-thoracic surgery journals and no significant increase in female authorship has been demonstrated in recent years. Increasing awareness of gender disparities is essential to facilitate equal career opportunities and academic advancement for women in cardio-thoracic surgery.