Representatividade feminina na endodontia: um estudo sobre o corpo editorial e autoria das publicações nos periódicos de maior impacto da área

Abstract

The gender equality is a widely discussed topic in society. However, inequality between women and men remains widespread in several sectors, including healthcare, science and academy. The greater presence of women in dentistry courses doesn’t reflect the greater number of women with prominent positions in this area. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the presence of women on editorial boards and as authors in leading global endodontics journals between 2018 and 2022. The selection of journals was based on impact factor from Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and CiteScore from 2022. It was decided to include those with the highest impact factor in the area, presenting JCR above 1 and CiteScore above 1.5 in 2022. The assessment of member of the editorial board was divided into two groups: editor-in-chief and associate editor. The assessment of authorships was divided in 3 groups: first author, last author and corresponding author in the period between 2018 and 2022. The names of the editorial board members and authors of each journal were extracted into an Excel and gender analysis were conducted through platforms such as Genderize, PubMed, Scopus, ResearchGate, and their respective affiliated institutions, categorized in binary way. Descriptive statistic was used to analyze the editorial board data. A Poisson regression analysis was performed to investigate the prevalence ratio of female authorship compared to male related to the first author, last author and corresponding author. The chi-square test was performed to evaluate the associations between female authors in a prominent position and the presence of the female gender of other authors. A total of 4 journals were analyzed, identifying a total of 211 editorial member participants with only 16 (7,5%) being female. Analyzing the categories, there were a total of 16 editors-in-chief and 195 associate editors; none of these were women and 16 (8,2%) were female, respectively. 7.365 authors were identified, however 2.401 (32,6%) being female. Analyzing the categories, 985 (39,7%) first authors, 659 (26,5%) last authors and 757 (30,5%) correspondence authors were women. The most journals had a higher male prevalence ratio in the first author. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between 2018 and 2019, showing the lowest number of women in relation to men in all categories. The presence of women in prominent authorships is associated with greater female authorship in other position. Female participation in the editorial committees and as first, last and correspondence authors in the best journals of worlds is low