Authorship diversity in Gastroenterology-related Cochrane systematic reviews: Inequities in global representation

Ref ID 863
First Author A. Dhali
Journal FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2022
URL https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.982664/full
Keywords Cochrane
Author
Equity
Team
Gastroenterology
Problem(s) Failure to consider equity, different socioeconomic groups or disadvantaged populations
Weaknesses identified in some Cochrane reviews
Lack of diversity in review authorship teams
Number of systematic reviews included 106
Summary of Findings From 106 included Cochrane reviews in Gastroenterology collected from the Cochrane Library up to 23 April 2022. One hundred and six publications with a total of 545 authors were included. There were far more male authors than female authors. In terms of author positions, women were underrepresented in dominant author positions (first authors and corresponding authors).The leading five represented nations in authorship were Canada (n = 195, 35.9%), United Kingdom (n = 119, 21.9%), Chile (n = 69, 12.7%), Germany (n = 42, 7.7%), and United States of America (n = 30, 5.5%). India was the only country among all the low and low-middle-income countries which had authorship representation and constituted 1.1% (n = 6) of all the authors. Male (n = 381) to female (n = 168) ratio was 2.26:1 and thirty-nine (36.7%) studies didn't have any female representation in any lead author (corresponding or first author) position. Twenty (18.8%) studies didn't have any female authors at all.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? Not Applicable
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? No