Researchers recently measured the prevalence of female first authors on studies in six high-impact medical journals over a 20-year period. While the overall representation of women has increased, the figure has begun to plateau—and even decline—in some journals in recent years, highlighting the ongoing issue of gender imbalance in medical research, according to a study led by researchers at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas, Texas, published March 2 in The BMJ.
How often a researcher nabs the coveted first author position can affect everything from her pay to her likelihood of getting tenure, Carolyn Lam, a cardiologist and professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, told NPR’s Shots. “This is our livelihood,” said Lam, who was not part of the study. “It’s ...
