Scientific Publishing Differences between Sexes in Cardiology, Cardiac, and General Surgery

Abstract

Background Research and scientific publications are important for the advancement of science but also for the individual career development. While women have become the majority of students in medicine we do not know about female presence and scientific activity in cardiac surgery. We thus aimed to compare scientific output of women and men in German University departments of cardiac surgery with cardiology departments focusing on the same organ and surgical departments not addressing the heart (general surgery) of 34 universities in Germany.

Methods Personnel working at University departments was identified on the institutions internet homepage in 2014. Publications in 2011 to 2013 on PubMed were identified. Author and manuscript characteristics were determined.

Results A lower proportion of women were working in cardiac surgery (25%) compared with cardiology (35%) and general (32%) surgery independent of executive function or academic degree. Scientifically active women published fewer manuscripts per capita than men both, in total and as first author. Additionally, the mean and the cumulated journal impact factor of the journals chosen was lower for women compared with men in cardiology but not in cardiac and general surgery.

Conclusion We conclude that the differences in scientific activity between women and men are more pronounced in cardiology compared with general and cardiac surgery, indicating that a higher proportion of women in a field does not result in reduced differences between sexes. The low number of women together with the lower number of manuscripts in cardiac surgery may render the appointment of women as directors challenging.

Keywords

cardiac surgery departments - PubMed database - scientific output - sex differences

Authors' Contribution

G.F. drafted and revised the manuscript, analyzed data for [Fig. 2] and prepared it, and prepared [Supplementary Tables S1] to [S4], available in the online version only. L.A. searched the personnel in the departments and identified their publications thus generating the database and revised the manuscript. E.H. used the database to analyze the data for [Figs. 1], [3] [4] [5] [6] and [Supplementary Fig. S1], [Supplementary Table S5], available in the online version only, performed statistical analysis, and revised the manuscript. T.D. suggested research on publication activity and revised the manuscript. M.S. developed the reseach idea, supervised and guided database generation, data analysis as well as manuscript preparation and revision.

^* Authors contributed equally to the manuscript.

Publication History

Received: 18 January 2021

Accepted: 14 August 2021

Article published online:
11 December 2021

• References

• 1 Limacher MC, Zaher CA, Walsh MN. et al; American College of Cardiology. The ACC professional life survey: career decisions of women and men in cardiology. A report of the Committee on Women in Cardiology. J Am Coll Cardiol 1998; 32 (03) 827-835
• 2 Davidson JM, Lambert TW, Goldacre MJ. Career pathways and destinations 18 years on among doctors who qualified in the United Kingdom in 1977: postal questionnaire survey. BMJ 1998; 317 (7170): 1425-1428
• 3 Bundesärztekammer. Physicians with occupational health certificates in Germany. 2016
• 4 Colleges AoAM. Residency Applicants from U.S. MD-Granting Medical Schools to ACGME-Accredited Programs by Specialty and Sex. 2018
• 5 Bowman M, Gross ML. Overview of research on women in medicine–issues for public policymakers. Public health reports (Washington, DC: 1974) 1986; 101: 513-521
• 6 Foote DC, Meza JM, Sood V, Reddy RM. Assessment of female medical students' interest in careers in cardiothoracic surgery. J Surg Educ 2017; 74 (05) 811-819
• 7 Statistisches Bundesamt. (Destatis). Students of medicine by sex (total and German students). 2020
• 8 AWMF-Kommission. “Bibliometrie”. Bibliometrie - eine Methode der Leistungsevaluation von Forschung. 2000
• 9 DFG Senatskommission. Empfehlungen zu einer »Leistungsorientierten Mittelvergabe« (LOM) an den Medizinischen Fakultäten. 2004
• 10 Gießler A. Zur Evaluierung der Forschungsleistung eines Universitätsklinikums. Dtsch Med Wochenschr 2000; 125 (33) 979-983
• 11 Phillips EA, Nimeh T, Braga J, Lerner LB. Does a surgical career affect a woman's childbearing and fertility? A report on pregnancy and fertility trends among female surgeons. J Am Coll Surg 2014; 219 (05) 944-950
• 12 Pham DT, Stephens EH, Antonoff MB. et al. Birth trends and factors affecting childbearing among thoracic surgeons. Ann Thorac Surg 2014; 98 (03) 890-895
• 13 Field D, Lennox A. Gender in medicine: the views of first and fifth year medical students. Med Educ 1996; 30 (04) 246-252
• 14 Adamo SA. Attrition of women in the biological sciences: workload, motherhood, and other explanations revisited. Bioscience 2013; 63: 43-48
• 15 Wolfinger NH, Mason MA, Goulden M. Problems in the pipeline: gender, marriage, and fertility in the Ivory Tower. J Higher Educ 2008; 79: 388-405
• 16 Ceci SJ, Williams WM. Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2011; 108 (08) 3157-3162
• 17 Falk A, Hermle J. Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality. Science 2018; 362 (6412): eaas9899
• 18 Stoet G, Geary DC. The gender-equality paradox in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Psychol Sci 2018; 29 (04) 581-593
• 19 Moss-Racusin CA, Dovidio JF, Brescoll VL, Graham MJ, Handelsman J. Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012; 109 (41) 16474-16479
• 20 Evers A, Sieverding M. Why do highly qualified women (still) earn less? Gender differences in long-term predictors of career success. Psychol Women Q 2014; 38: 93-106