Bibliometric Analysis of the English Musculoskeletal Literature over the Last 30 Years

Table 10

Comparison between author gender and editorial board composition.

	Decade
	1985–86	1995–96	2005–06	2015–16	% 1985–86	% 1995–96	% 2005–06	% 2015–16	value^
Entire study
First author
Female	164	403	619	1,024	10.8	14.5	16.3	23.7	<10^15
Male	1,353	2,377	3,171	3,290	89.2	85.5	83.7	76.3
Corresponding author
Female	128	329	513	812	8.9	11.8	13.5	18.9	<10^15
Male	1,312	2,459	3,291	3,493	91.1	88.2	86.5	81.1
Editorial board
Female	26	78	100	144	4.4	7.8	8.6	11.2	0.000001
Male	567	925	1,068	1,144	95.6	92.2	91.4	88.8
By Journal Type
Clinical
First author
Female	95	177	331	577	7.9	9.1	11.4	17.8	<10^15
Male	1,107	1,759	2,584	2,673	92.1	90.9	88.6	82.2
Corresponding author
Female	78	145	279	476	7.0	7.5	9.6	14.7	<10^15
Male	1,041	1,795	2,641	2,769	93.0	92.5	90.4	85.3
Editorial board
Female	11	33	48	39	2.9	4.7	5.8	4.5	0.27
Male	374	675	778	826	97.1	95.3	94.2	95.5
Basic science
First Author
Female	69	226	288	447	21.9	26.8	32.9	42.2	<10^15
Male	246	618	587	612	78.1	73.2	67.1	57.8
Corresponding author
Female	50	184	234	336	15.6	21.7	26.5	31.7	2.8 × 10^−11
Male	271	664	650	724	84.4	78.3	73.5	68.3
Editorial board
Female	15	45	52	105	7.2	15.3	15.2	24.8	4.7 × 10^−8
Male	193	250	290	318	92.8	84.7	84.8	75.2
By geographic region
North America
Corresponding author
Female	66	175	261	368	7.4	11.3	13.8	16.9	5.3 × 10^−14
Male	827	1,374	1,626	1,810	92.6	88.7	86.2	83.1
Editorial board
Female	16	50	60	97	4.0	8.3	8.5	11.0	0.00008
Male	387	554	648	785	96.0	91.7	91.5	89.0
Europe
Corresponding author
Female	53	121	187	273	12.9	13.7	15.1	22.8	4.9 × 10^−9
Male	359	761	1,055	922	87.1	86.3	84.9	77.2
Editorial board
Female	9	15	19	36	6.7	7.2	8.7	14.1	0.0046
Male	126	192	200	219	93.3	92.8	91.3	85.9
Asia
Corresponding author
Female	6	18	44	101	6.4	7.0	8.8	14.2	0.00015
Male	88	240	458	610	93.6	93.0	91.2	85.8
Editorial board
Female	0	1	2	5	0.0	1.7	3.4	5.1	0.16
Male	18	59	56	93	100.0	98.3	96.6	94.9
Australia/New Zealand
Corresponding author
Female	3	10	16	60	10.3	14.3	13.1	37.3	0.000004
Male	26	60	106	101	89.7	85.7	86.9	62.7
Editorial board
Female	0	0	1	3	0.0	0.0	8.3	11.1	0.096
Male	8	19	11	24	100.0	100.0	91.7	88.9
Latin America
Corresponding author
Female	0	3	3	7	0.0	15.0	8.6	20.6	0.27
Male	4	17	32	27	100.0	85.0	91.4	79.4
Editorial board
Female	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	—
Male	4	7	5	9	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Africa
Corresponding author
Female	0	2	2	3	0.0	22.2	12.5	11.5	0.74
Male	8	7	14	23	100.0	77.8	87.5	88.5
Editorial board
Female	1	0	0	1	20.0	0.0	0.0	11.1	0.81
Male	4	5	1	8	80.0	100.0	100.0	88.9
By location of journal editorial office
North America
First author
Female	107	302	498	821	9.7	14.5	16.4	24.4	<10^15
Male	997	1,784	2,545	2,543	90.3	85.5	83.6	75.6
Corresponding author
Female	74	252	423	638	7.2	12.1	13.9	19.0	<10^15
Male	947	1,833	2,614	2,716	92.8	87.9	86.1	81.0
Editorial board
Female	22	64	86	118	4.7	7.8	8.6	11.2	0.000023
Male	448	757	919	933	95.3	92.2	91.4	88.8
Europe
First author
Female	57	101	121	203	13.8	14.6	16.2	21.4	0.000053
Male	356	593	626	747	86.2	85.4	83.8	78.6
Corresponding author
Female	54	77	90	174	12.9	11.0	11.7	18.3
Male	365	626	677	777	87.1	89.0	88.3	81.7	0.00029
Editorial board
Female	4	14	14	26	3.3	7.7	8.6	11.0
Male	119	168	149	211	96.7	92.3	91.4	89.0	0.014

^ = Cochran linear trend test.