Female first and senior authorship in high-impact critical care journals 2005–2024
Authors' conclusion
Despite small but constant growth rates of female representation as first or senior authors in high impact critical care journals over the past 20 years, women remain clearly underrepresented.
Study context
- Population
- Articles in the five highest-ranked critical care journals (by impact factor), 2005–2024articles
- Participants
- 42,970 articles
- Outcome
- Female first, senior, and combined first and senior authorships (percentages, annual change)
Methodological details20-year trend analysis, linear regression, web-based gender prediction (NamSor)
- 20-year trend analysis
- Linear regression
- Web-based gender prediction (NamSor)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Authorship gender distribution
Publications with both female first and senior authors
7.8%
Publications with both positions held by men
56.7%
Single authors female
23.6%
Annual change in female authorships (linear regression), by journal, author position and time period
- 0.1 and + 0.6% points per year
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Sensitivity analysis (>80% probability of correct gender classification)
- Congruent results
Original publication
Female first and senior authorship in high-impact critical care journals 2005–2024. Crit Care. Published 8 September 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →