Characterizing the Impact of Women in Academic IR: A 12-Year Analysis

Purpose: To determine the representation of female interventional radiology (IR) investigators and elucidate possible gender-specific disparities. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 4,884 original, peer-reviewed articles from 2006–2017 in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology and CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology. Data abstraction and statistical analysis were performed for first and senior author gender, citations, and grants. Results: We found that 84% of first authors and 91.4% of senior authors were male (P <.01). No significant difference was observed versus expected in terms of author gender collaboration combinations (P = 1.00). Each year reflected a 0.3%–0.4% increase in articles published by women (first author: B-value: 0.3, P =.05; senior author: B-value: 0.4, P =.01). No difference was observed in citations or grants received between genders. Female authors received increasing citations and grants each year (citations: first author: B-value: 0.24, P =.05; senior author: B-value: 0.16, P =.15; grants: B-value: 0.88, P =.02). Conclusions: Women are equally as productive as men as determined by metrics such as number of publications, citations, and grants and are proportionally represented in the literature. No data indicating collaborative or citation/grant discrimination were observed, suggesting that the academic IR community is inclusive of its female constituents and equally respects their research contributions. Based on the statistically significant increases in female authorship observed in this 12-year study, this article reports encouraging trends for the future of women in interventional radiology.