Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keysNCBI HomepageMyNCBI HomepageMain ContentMain Navigation
. 2023 Feb;20(2):215-225.
doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202203-277OC.

Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Author Sex and Manuscript Acceptance Rates among Pulmonary and Critical Care Journals

Hayley B Gershengorn  1   2 , Kelly C Vranas  3   4   5 , David Ouyang  6 , Susan Cheng  6 , Angela J Rogers  7 , Liana Schweiger  3   4   5 , Colin R Cooke  8   9   10 , Christopher G Slatore  3   4   5   11
Affiliations

Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Author Sex and Manuscript Acceptance Rates among Pulmonary and Critical Care Journals

Hayley B Gershengorn et al. Ann Am Thorac Soc.2023 Feb.

Abstract

Rationale: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected women more than men and may influence the publication of non-COVID-19 research. Objectives: To evaluate whether the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with changes in manuscript acceptance rates among pulmonary/critical care journals and sex-based disparities in these rates. Methods: We analyzed first, senior, and corresponding author sex (female vs. male, identified by matching first names in a validated Genderize database) of manuscripts submitted to four pulmonary/critical care journals between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020. We constructed interrupted time series regression models to evaluate whether the proportion of female first and senior authors of non-COVID-19 original research manuscripts changed with the pandemic. Next, we performed multivariable logistic regressions to evaluate the association of author sex with acceptance of original research manuscripts. Results: Among 8,332 original research submissions, women represented 39.9% and 28.3% of first and senior authors, respectively. We found no change in the proportion of female first or senior authors of non-COVID-19 or COVID-19 submitted research manuscripts during the COVID-19 era. Non-COVID-19 manuscripts submitted during the COVID-19 era had reduced odds of acceptance, regardless of author sex (first author adjusted OR [aOR], 0.46 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.36-0.59]; senior author aOR, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.37-0.57]). Female senior authorship was associated with decreased acceptance of non-COVID-19 research manuscripts (crude rates, 14.4% [male] vs. 13.2% [female]; aOR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.71-0.99]). Conclusions: Although female author submissions were not disproportionately influenced by COVID-19, we found evidence suggesting sex disparities in manuscript acceptance rates. Journals may need to consider strategies to reduce this disparity, and academic institutions may need to factor our findings, including lower acceptance rates for non-COVID-19 manuscripts, into promotion decisions.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; publications; scholarly publishing; sex bias.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram. AJRCCM = American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine; AJRCMB = American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology; AnnalsATS = Annals of the American Thoracic Society; ATS = American Thoracic Society.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The proportion of women authors of non–COVID-19 manuscripts, stratified by submission month. (A) First author. (B) Senior author. Regression predictions determined from interrupted time series linear regression. *Chi-square P value for unadjusted analysis: P = 0.10. Regression coefficients for COVID-19 era submission from interrupted time series linear regression (95% confidence interval): −0.03 (−0.10, 0.03); P = 0.35. †Chi-square P value for unadjusted analysis: P = 0.21; regression coefficients for COVID-19 era submission from interrupted time series linear regression (95% confidence interval): 0.00 (−0.06, 0.06), P = 0.89. CI = confidence interval; COVID-19 = coronavirus disease.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Proportion of women authors of COVID-19 manuscripts, stratified by submission month and author world region. *P values for chi-square testing—submission month, P = 0.82; world region, P = 0.80. †P values for chi-square testing—submission month, P = 0.66; world region, P = 0.67. COVID-19 = coronavirus disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Cardel MI, Dean N, Montoya-Williams D. Preventing a secondary epidemic of lost early career scientists; effects of COVID-19 pandemic on women with children. Ann Am Thorac Soc . 2020;17:1366–1370. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Godlee F. Covid-19: why we still need more women in academia. BMJ . 2020;371:m4161.
    1. Delaney RK, Locke A, Pershing ML, Geist C, Clouse E, Precourt Debbink M, et al. Experiences of a health system’s faculty, staff, and trainees’ career development, work culture, and childcare needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Netw Open . 2021;4:e213997. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Myers KR, Tham WY, Yin Y, Cohodes N, Thursby JG, Thursby MC, et al. Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists. Nat Hum Behav . 2020;4:880–883. - PubMed
    1. McCormick CM. Disparities in the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on publishing: evidence from submissions to Hormones and Behavior. Horm Behav . 2020;124:104814. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

close