ArticleBMJ open2025
Female authorship trends in a high-impact Canadian medical journal: a 10-year cross-sectional series, 2013-2023.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
importanceWomen are under-represented in senior roles within academic medicine, including as authors in high-impact journals.
objectiveTo examine trends and predictors of female authorship in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) as the only high-impact Canadian journal over a 10-year period to understand gender balances in Canadian academic publishing.
designThis cross-sectional study analysed trends and predictors of female authorship in articles published in CMAJ from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2023.
settingData were extracted from PubMed for CMAJ, the only high-impact Canadian medical journal (impact factor ≥10). Data extraction used the RISmed package in R Studio.
participantsThe study included articles published in CMAJ within the specified period. Author gender was predicted using the validated Genderize.io software. Articles where the gender of the authors could not be predicted were excluded from analysis. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The co-primary outcomes were proportions of female first and last authors. Statistical analyses included χ
resultsFrom 5805 included articles, women comprised 47% of first authors and 43% of last authors (p<0.001), both significantly lower than men (p<0.001). Female first authorship increased by 17.7% and female last authorship by 10.5% over the study period (both p<0.05 for trend), reaching a majority (58%) and near parity (48%) in 2023, respectively. Female editor-in-chief and higher proportion of female coauthors were associated with higher odds of female first and last authors; female last authors were additionally associated with higher odds of female first authors.
interpretationWomen were under-represented in authorship overall, though female first and last authorship increased over time, with first authorship exceeding parity in recent years and last authorship nearing equal representation. Female editors-in-chief and a higher proportion of female coauthors were associated with greater female first and last authorship, while female last authorship was additionally associated with higher odds of female first authorship. These findings provide insight into authorship trends in a high-impact Canadian medical journal and may inform future efforts to support gender equity in academic publishing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.