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Was the COVID-19 Pandemic Associated with Gender Disparities in Authorship of Manuscripts Submitted to Clinical Neuropsychology Journals?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2021

Michelle A. Babicz*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Anastasia Matchanova
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Robiann Broomfield
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Libby A. DesRuisseaux
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Michelle M. Gereau
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Stacey L. Brothers
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Lauren Radigan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Erik Porter
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Gregory P. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Lisa J. Rapport
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Yana Suchy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Keith Owen Yeates
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, AB, Canada Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, AB, Canada Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, AB, Canada
Steven Paul Woods
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Michelle A. Babicz, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building (Ste. 239d), Houston, TX 77004-5022, USA. E-mail: mababicz@uh.edu
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Abstract

Objective:

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated gender disparities in some academic disciplines. This study examined the association of the pandemic with gender authorship disparities in clinical neuropsychology (CN) journals.

Method:

Author bylines of 1,018 initial manuscript submissions to four major CN journals from March 15 through September 15 of both 2019 and 2020 were coded for binary gender. Additionally, authorship of 40 articles published on pandemic-related topics (COVID-19, teleneuropsychology) across nine CN journals were coded for binary gender.

Results:

Initial submissions to these four CN journals increased during the pandemic (+27.2%), with comparable increases in total number of authors coded as either women (+23.0%) or men (+25.4%). Neither the average percentage of women on manuscript bylines nor the proportion of women who were lead and/or corresponding authors differed significantly across time. Moreover, the representation of women as authors of pandemic-related articles did not differ from expected frequencies in the field.

Conclusions:

Findings suggest that representation of women as authors of peer-reviewed manuscript submissions to some CN journals did not change during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies might examine how risk and protective factors may have influenced individual differences in scientific productivity during the pandemic.

Information

Type
Brief Communication
Copyright
Copyright © INS. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Percentage of woman as authors in the bylines of initial manuscript submissions to clinical neuropsychology journals during the period of March through September 2019 and 2020. ACN = Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology; JCEN = Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology; NP = Neuropsychology; and TCN = The Clinical Neuropsychologist. The double line symbol denotes a break in the Y-axis. Error bars reflect standard error. Note. Includes full sample (n = 1,018).

Figure 1

Fig. 2. Stacked column chart showing the frequency of women as lead (a) and corresponding (b) authors in the bylines of initial manuscript submissions to clinical neuropsychology journals during the period of March through September 2019 and 2020. Note. Excludes cases in which the same individual was both lead and corresponding author (n = 244).