ArticleAutism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research2022
Exclusion of females in autism research: Empirical evidence for a "leaky" recruitment-to-research pipeline.
Article in Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
79 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 169 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining Virtual Reality Interventions for Social Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- The Use of Digital Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder-A Meta-Analysis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Autistic Adults: A Systematic Review Across RDoC Units of Analysis.Psychophysiology · 2025Pooled it
- Understanding irritability through the lens of self-regulatory control processes in children and adolescents: a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Autism, menstruation and mental health- a scoping review and a call to action.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Pooled it
- Neurometabolite differences in Autism as assessed with Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Anxiety, repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests, and social communication in autistic adults: an exploratory analysis of a phase 3, randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Addressing Common Problems in Autism Research: Cohort Development and Sample Description for a Participatory, Real-World, Longitudinal Study of Outcomes in Autistic Adults.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Item-Level Sex Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder Measures: A MIMIC Model Analysis of ADOS-2 and ADI-R in a Referred Pediatric Sample.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Intact Visual Correlation Detection in Autistic Adults.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Social Functioning in Autistic Children with Below-Average vs. Average IQ: Limited Behavioral and Neural Evidence of Group Differences.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Developmental Trajectories of Autistic Social Traits in Youth Born Extremely Preterm.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Investigating the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule 'Gold Standard' Origin Myth.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Untangling Sex and Gender Differences in Impression Management and Associated Autism Features in French Autistic Adults.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences in Autistic and Neurotypical Girls.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- De-gendering and dehumanization in mental representations of autistic men's and women's facial appearance.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Expanding Understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Girls and Women: A New Paradigm.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Genetic Testing History in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Mitigating Sex-Related Biases to Elucidate the Autism Phenotype.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- The Under-Identification of Autism in Females: A Review and Analysis of Sex-Based Scoring Differences Observed in Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Module 3.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by challenges in social communication and the presence of repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. Notably, males are four times as likely as females to be diagnosed with autism. Despite efforts to increase representation and characterization of autistic females, research studies consistently enroll small samples of females, or exclude females altogether. Importantly, researchers often rely on standardized measures to confirm diagnosis prior to enrollment in research studies. We retrospectively analyzed the effects of one such measure (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, ADOS) on research inclusion/exclusion rates by sex in autistic adults, all of whom had a preexisting community diagnosis of autism (n = 145, 95 male, 50 female). Using the ADOS as a confirmatory diagnostic measure resulted in the exclusion of autistic females at a rate over 2.5 times higher than that of autistic males. We compared sex ratios in our sample to those in other large, publically available datasets that rely either on community diagnosis (6 datasets, total n = 42,209) or standardized assessments (2 datasets, total n = 214) to determine eligibility of participants for research. Reliance on community diagnosis rather than confirmatory diagnostic assessments resulted in significantly more equal sex ratios. These results provide evidence for a "leaky" recruitment-to-research pipeline for females in autism research. LAY SUMMARY: Despite efforts to increase the representation of autistic females in research, studies consistently enroll small samples of females or exclude females altogether. We find that despite making up almost 50% of the initially recruited sample based upon self-report of community diagnosis, autistic females are disproportonately excluded from research participation as a result of commonly used autism diagnostic measures. In our sample, and several other publically available datasets, reliance on community diagnosis resulted in significantly more equal sex ratios.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.