Background

Gender inequalities in academic medicine persist despite progress over the past decade. Evidence-based targeted interventions are needed to reduce gender inequalities.

Objective

This systematic review aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on gender trends in authorship of paediatric radiology research worldwide.

Materials and methods

This prospectively registered, PRISMA-compliant systematic review searched the following databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus from January 1, 2018, to May 29, 2023, with no restrictions on country of origin. Screening and data extraction occurred independently and in duplicate. Gender of first, last, and corresponding authors were determined using an artificial intelligence-powered, validated, multinational database (www.genderize.io). Two time periods were categorised according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering: pre-COVID (prior to March 2020) and peak and post-COVID (March 2020 onwards). One-sample binomial testing was used to analyse proportion of authorship based on gender. Categorical variables were described as frequencies and percentages, and compared using testing chi-square or Fisher exact testing, with a threshold of P<0.05 representing statistical significance.

Results

In total, 922 articles were included with 39 countries represented. A statistically significant difference in authorship based on gender persisted during the peak and post-COVID time period (March 2020 onwards) where women represented a statistically significant lower proportion of last (35.5%) and corresponding (42.7%) authors (P<0.001, P=0.001, respectively). Statistically significant differences for first authors were not found in either period (P=0.08 and P=0.48).

Conclusion

This study identifies differences in gender trends for authorship in paediatric radiology research worldwide. Future efforts to increase authorship by women are needed.

Graphical Abstract

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 前后全球儿科放射学文章作者的性别趋势：系统评价

背景

尽管过去十年取得了进展，学术医学领域的性别不平等仍然存在。需要采取基于证据的有针对性的干预措施来减少性别不平等。

客观的

本系统综述旨在调查 COVID-19 对全球儿科放射学研究作者性别趋势的影响。

材料和方法

这项前瞻性注册、符合 PRISMA 标准的系统评价检索了以下数据库：PubMed、MEDLINE、Web of Science 和 Scopus，检索时间为 2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2023 年 5 月 29 日，对来源国没有限制。筛选和数据提取独立进行且重复进行。第一作者、最后作者和通讯作者的性别是使用人工智能驱动的、经过验证的跨国数据库 (www.genderize.io) 确定的。根据约翰霍普金斯大学系统科学与工程中心对两个时间段进行了分类：新冠疫情前（2020 年 3 月之前）和新冠疫情高峰期和后（2020 年 3 月起）。使用单样本二项式检验来分析基于性别的作者比例。分类变量被描述为频率和百分比，并使用卡方检验或 Fisher 精确检验进行比较，阈值P <0.05 表示统计显着性。

结果

总共包含 922 篇文章，涉及 39 个国家。在高峰期和新冠疫情后时期（2020 年 3 月起），基于性别的作者身份存在统计学上的显着差异，其中女性在最后一位作者 (35.5%) 和相应作者 (42.7%) 中所占的比例具有统计显着性较低的比例 ( P <0.001，P = 0.001，分别）。第一作者在这两个时期均未发现统计学上的显着差异（P = 0.08 和P = 0.48）。

结论

本研究确定了全球儿科放射学研究作者性别趋势的差异。未来需要努力增加女性作者的数量。

图形概要