Research Article
Trends in Gender Authorship and Collaborations: A 30-Year
Comparative Bibliometric Analysis of Manuscripts from The
JournalofBoneandJointSurgeryandTheBoneandJointJournal
Maria E. Squire ,
1
Katherine Schultz ,
2
Donnell McDonald ,
2
Cory Meixner ,
2
Dayton Snyder ,
2
Alyssa M. Cooke ,
2
Jacob C. Davis ,
2
Sarina Masso Maldonado ,
2
Carlos R. Martinez Licha ,
2
Elizabeth C. Whipple ,
3
Melissa A. Kacena ,
2
and Randall T. Loder
2
1
University of Scranton, Department of Biology, Scranton, PA, USA
2
Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Indianapolis, IN, USA
3
Ruth Lilly Medical Library, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoRandallT.Loder;rloder@iupui.edu
Received 1 June 2020; Revised 2 November 2020; Accepted 3 December 2020; Published 18 December 2020
AcademicEditor:MarkE.Shaffrey
Copyright © 2020 Maria E. Squire et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Publishingoriginalpeer-reviewedresearchisessentialforadvancementthroughallcareerstages.Fewerwomenthanmenholdsenior-
levelpositionsinacademicmedicineand,therefore,examiningpublicationtrendsrelativetogenderisimportant.egoalofthisstudy
wastoexamineandcomparepublicationtrendsin eJournalofBoneandJointSurgery (JBJS)and eBoneandJointJournal (BJJ)with
aparticularemphasisontrendsregardingauthorgender.Datawascollectedandanalyzedformanuscriptspublishedin JBJS and BJJ over
the past 30 years. For manuscripts published in 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016, we recorded the numbers of authors, manuscript pages,
references, collaborating institutions, the position in the byline of the corresponding author, the country of the corresponding author,
andthenamesofthefirstandcorrespondingauthor.Wealsocalculatedthenormalizednumberofcitationsandcorrespondingauthor
position.enumberofauthors,institutions,andcountriescollaboratingonmanuscriptspublishedinboth JBJS and BJJ increasedover
time. JBJS published more manuscripts from North America and BJJ published more manuscripts from Europe. In both journals, the
percentage of women as first and/or corresponding author increased over time. Trends over the past 30 years have shown increased
collaborationswithgreatercitationsinmanuscriptspublishedin JBJS and BJJ.Inthesametimeperiod,bothjournalsdemonstratedarise
in the percentage of manuscripts with women first and/or corresponding authors, suggesting a decrease in the gender gap.
1. Introduction
Original research in peer-reviewed journals allows the re-
viewanddisseminationofnewinformation.eincreasing
complexity of research has resulted in increased collabo-
ration among researchers (same institution or geographic
region, or different countries) to obtain appropriate ex-
pertise [1–3]. Collaboration is easier with the advances in
technology [3]. Studies have suggested that international
collaborations expand the dissemination of information,
increasing readership and citations [1, 4]. Increasing
collaboration may also be due to the “publish or perish”
paradigm[5–9],aspublicationproductionisimportantatall
career stages [9–11].
Medicine has traditionally been a field dominated by
men,althoughwomenhavemadesignificantgains;in2018-
2019, women represented 49.5% of US medical school
matriculates [12]. Due to a few senior-level women in ac-
ademic medicine, it is important to examine publication
trends relative to gender. In the USA, there has been no
meaningful change in orthopedic surgery residents from
10.9% in 2006 to 14.4% in 2015 [13]. is minimal change
Hindawi
Scientifica
Volume 2020, Article ID 5019607, 11 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5019607