The Percentage of Female Authors in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Literature Has Not Changed in 20 Years

Purpose Academic advancement often depends on publications and reflects leadership within a profession. This study compares the number of articles written by females in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (JOMS) versus the number of women in the profession of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS). Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of articles published in JOMS at 3 time points (1995, 2005, 2015). The primary predictor variables were author gender and time over 3 time points: 1995, 2005, and 2015. Gender was established by visual inspection. The primary outcome variable was the proportion of articles written by females, defined as number of articles written by a female divided by the total number of female members of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS). Inclusion criteria were: (1) original, full length research articles in JOMS, (2) authorship by a female, and (3) articles at a US academic institution. A two-tailed chi-squared test was used. The rate of change in female authorship over time was analyzed using a linear regression followed by F-test (significance p Results During the years examined, the number of first and last female authors ranged from 3-6.3%. Approximately 7% of OMS registered with AAOMS in 2015 were female. Comparing expected proportion of female authorship as based on female surgeons registered with AAOMS, the proportions of female first authorship were significantly lower than expected in 1995 and 2015. Female authorship was found to be significantly less than expected. Using a linear regression analysis there was no significant change in the proportion of female first or last authorship in the period examined (p=0.69, p=0.99). Conclusions During the years examined, there was no significant increase in female authorship in JOMS. This demonstrates an area of opportunity to improve gender disparity in OMS.