Gender disparities in leadership of methodological research in health science

Nicolette Christodoulakis, Daeria O Lawson, Jessyca Silva, Jack Young, Laura N Anderson, Harriette G C Van Spall, Carmen H Logie and Lawrence Mbuagbaw

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Objectives: Gender disparities in methodological studies are largely unexplored. We aimed to examine gender representation between first and last authorship positions in methodological research in health science. Methods: We searched for methodological articles as part of a large study focused on creating a methodological study reporting checklist. We extracted the names of the first and last authors of all included studies and determined their gender using Genderize.io, classifying authors as women if the gender probability was ≥ 60%. Our primary outcome was the proportion of studies with women in leadership roles (first or last author as separate outcomes). Secondary outcomes included the proportion of studies with both or either the first or last authors as women. We examined associations between women’s leadership and country income level, World Health Organization region, number of authors on the study team, and publication year. Results: Of the 1,375 included studies, the genders of 1,332 first authors and 1,334 last authors were determined. Among first authors, 675 (50.7%) were women, and 657 (49.3%) were men, indicating no gender difference. Among last authors, 486 (36.4%) were women, and 848 (63.6%) were men, with a statistically significant difference (χ² = 98.23, p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0359403

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0359403

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