Examining gender and ethnic disparities in scientific authorship to promote a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion at a university school of public health

Abstract

In public health research, diverse perspectives are vital to identify biases that homogenous teams might miss. Since publication metrics influence career progression, we investigated publication rate disparities within a School of Public Health. We analysed 18 322 peer-reviewed publications by 513 affiliated researchers between 2014 and 2023 using multivariable regression models and network analysis to assess the impact of gender, ethnicity, job level and centrality in the School's research network on publication rates. We found a persistent gender gap in publication rates across job levels and ethnicities, with men publishing more than women (incidence rate ratio 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15-1.46). This disparity was present from early career levels and amplified in senior roles, where men were over-represented (71.2% of men at Professor level). Unadjusted analyses indicated higher publication rates for white researchers (median of one publication more per person per year). The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased publication rates for both genders, but the gender gap persisted, with men publishing 1.27 (95% CI: 1.10-1.46) times more than women in 2020/2021. This study underscores the need to identify and address root causes of these disparities to foster an inclusive research environment where diverse contributions are recognized and valued.

Keywords: equity, diversity and inclusion; research culture; research disparities.

Figure 1.

Proportion of men and women researchers by job category and perceived ethnicity group at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, 2014–2023. See electronic supplementary material for more information on ‘other’.

Figure 2.

Mean number of annual publications by job category, ethnicity (perceived) and gender (perceived). The box represents the median and interquartile range (IQR) of mean number of annual publications. The boxplot whiskers represent the adjacent values, which are by convention within 1.5 times the IQR. The dots represent mean number of annual publications outside of the adjacent values, known as outliers. n, number of observations. Annotation on graph: median (IQR). See electronic supplementary material for more information on ‘other’.

Figure 3.

Mean number of annual publications by authorship position, ethnicity (perceived) and gender (perceived). The box represents the median and interquartile range (IQR) of mean number of annual publications. The boxplot whiskers represent the adjacent values, which are by convention within 1.5 times the IQR. The dots represent mean number of annual publications outside of the adjacent values, known as outliers. n = number of observations. Annotation on graph: median (IQR).