Impact of the early COVID-19 pandemic on gender participation in academic publishing in radiation oncology

Abstract Background: There is a known gender gap in oncology publishing with worse disparities within specialty fields such as radiation oncology. There has been a significant increase in the number of manuscripts submitted to academic journals during the pandemic. Several analyses have suggested that the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on academic productivity of women in academia, as measured by manuscript publication rates. Materials and Methods: The gender of first/co-first and corresponding/co-corresponding authors, as well as non-senior versus senior status and manuscript type, for all papers published by Advances from its inception in December 2015 to the end of February 2020 was compared to those published between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2020 – the months during which the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America began. Results: This examination of papers published during COVID-19 did not indicate a statistically significant decrease in the overall proportion of women publishing in Advances (P=0.76). For non-senior female authors, this proportion fell just short of statistical significance (39% vs. 19%, P=0.051). When only scientific manuscripts were considered, there was a statistically significant decrease in publications by non-senior female first authors during the early months of the pandemic (37% vs. 11%, P=0.02) Conclusions: During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, non-senior female researchers participated less in manuscript publishing in radiation oncology.