Global Female Skull Base Researchers at the North American Skull Base Society Annual Meeting: Trends of Over 3,000 Published Abstracts from the Last Decade

Introduction: Women are increasingly entering the global surgical workforce. Our objective was to review gender, specialty, and geographic-based authorship contributions to the skull base literature.

Methods: Abstracts presented at North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) annual meetings, and also published in Journal of Neurological Surgery Skull Base Part B: Skull Base (JNS Part B) between 2011 and 2020 were reviewed. Trends in author gender, affiliation, and presentation type were assessed. Gender was determined using genderize.io web application interface (API). SPSS software was utilized with p-values ≤ 0.05 considered significant ([Figs. 1] [2] [3] [4]).

Results: Of 3,312 abstracts, 1,537 (46.4%) were posters and 1,775 (53.6%) were oral presentations. Female authors were a minority: 17.8% of first and 9.7% of last authors. Fifty-seven countries were represented. Non-North American countries with the highest proportion of female first authors were Israel (33.3%), Italy (24.0%), and Brazil (23.7%); those for last authors were Spain (40.0%), India (25.7%), and China (25.0%). The average increase in presentations each year was generally greater among male authors than female authors. Neither gender was more likely to present an oral presentation, though male authors were more likely than female to publish individually (6.1 vs. 1.0%, p < 0.001). Otolaryngology had higher proportions of both female first (23.3% vs. neurosurgery 13.5%; p = 0.018) and last authors (12.1% vs. neurosurgery 4.3%; p = 0.004).

Conclusion: Diverse authors have presented and published their research at the NASBS annual meeting and in JNS Part B. Yet female authorship varies by authorship position, departmental affiliation, and geographic location. More work is needed to ensure that the best and the brightest, regardless of background, continue to contribute to the multidisciplinary field of skull base.

Fig. 1 Departmental affiliation of first (top) and last author (bottom).

Fig. 2 Percentage of female researchers among first (top) and last authors (bottom) per state/territory/province with logarithmic scale. Black circles represent the approximate location of an annual meeting held between 2011 and 2020.

Fig. 3 Percentage of female researchers among first (top) and last authors (bottom) per country with logarithmic scale.

Fig. 4 Presentations per year, by gender. Circles represent oral presentations, squares represent poster. Linear trend lines are drawn for the oral (dashed), and poster (dotted) presentations. (A) Female first author. For oral, the slope for the line of best fit (r² = 0.68) was 3.6 presentations per year, 95% CI = [1.6, 5.6]. For poster, the slope (r² = 0.62) was 2.4 presentations per year, 95% CI = [0.9, 3.9]. (B) Female last author. For oral, the slope (r² = 0.67) was 1.8 presentations per year, 95% CI = [0.8, 2.9]. For poster, the slope (r² = 0.66) was 1.4 presentations per year, 95% CI = [0.6, 2.2]. (C) Male first author. For oral, the slope (r² = 0.51) was 5.4 presentations per year, 95% CI = [1.1, 9.6]. For poster, the slope (r² = 0.76) was 11 presentations per year, 95% CI = [5.7, 16]. (D) Male last author. For oral, the slope (r² = 0.62) was 8.9 presentations per year, 95% CI = [3.2, 15]. For poster, the slope (r² = 0.69) was 11 presentations per year, 95% CI = [4.9, 17].

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
01. Februar 2023