Disparities of Female Authorship in Colombia: A 5-year Cross-sectional Analysis

Accepted medical journal manuscripts serve as the primary currency of the scientific community. Over the past few decades, there has been a gradual increase in the number of women entering the medical field. However, women remain underrepresented as first and last authors in medical journals. This lack of representation makes it harder for them to reach leadership roles and advance in their academic careers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the gender distribution among authors and explore disparities in authorship in relation to the type of publication (original research, case reports, and review articles) as well as the authors geographic locations. Our analysis included 6,088 articles from 54 research journals sourced from Colombias Ministry of Health official website. These articles were predominantly original research articles, although case reports and reviews were also present. The analysis specifically focused on published research articles, as they are extensively studied in existing literature. Until now, there has been no assessment of gender disparities in authorship within medical and surgical specialty journals in Colombia. We could evidence persistent gender disparity in primary authorship in Colombia, regardless of the timeframe, location, or field of study. This emphasizes the urgent need for enhanced support for female researchers and equitable resource allocation to rectify regional imbalances. Furthermore, our findings highlight the imperative need to address gender disparities in authorship in medical and surgical research articles in Colombia and other Latin American countries.