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Possible reasons why female physicians publish fewer scientific articles than male physicians – a cross-sectional study

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Medical Education, April 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

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2 news outlets
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1 policy source
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53 Dimensions

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Title
Possible reasons why female physicians publish fewer scientific articles than male physicians – a cross-sectional study
Published in
BMC Medical Education, April 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12909-015-0347-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ann Fridner, Alexandra Norell, Gertrud Åkesson, Marie Gustafsson Sendén, Lise Tevik Løvseth, Karin Schenck-Gustafsson

Abstract

The proportion of women in medicine is approaching that of men, but female physicians are still in the minority as regards positions of power. Female physicians are struggling to reach the highest positions in academic medicine. One reason for the disparities between the genders in academic medicine is the fact that female physicians, in comparison to their male colleagues, have a lower rate of scientific publishing, which is an important factor affecting promotion in academic medicine. Clinical physicians work in a stressful environment, and the extent to which they can control their work conditions varies. The aim of this paper was to examine potential impeding and supportive work factors affecting the frequency with which clinical physicians publish scientific papers on academic medicine. Cross-sectional multivariate analysis was performed among 198 female and 305 male Swedish MD/PhD graduates. The main outcome variable was the number of published scientific articles. Male physicians published significantly more articles than female physicians p <. 001. In respective multivariate models for female and male physicians, age and academic positions were significantly related to a higher number of published articles, as was collaborating with a former PhD advisor for both female physicians (OR = 2.97; 95 % CI 1.22-7.20) and male physicians (OR = 2.10; 95 % CI 1.08-4.10). Control at work was significantly associated with a higher number of published articles for male physicians only (OR = 1.50; 95 % CI 1.08-2.09). Exhaustion had a significant negative impact on number of published articles among female physicians (OR = 0.29; 95 % CI 0.12-0.70) whilst the publishing rate among male physicians was not affected by exhaustion. Women physicians represent an expanding sector of the physician work force; it is essential that they are represented in future fields of research, and in academic publications. This is necessary from a gender perspective, and to ensure that physicians are among the research staff in biomedical research in the future.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 14 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 43 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 43 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 14%
Researcher 4 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 7%
Unspecified 2 5%
Other 2 5%
Other 9 21%
Unknown 17 40%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 17 40%
Social Sciences 3 7%
Unspecified 2 5%
Psychology 2 5%
Business, Management and Accounting 1 2%
Other 1 2%
Unknown 17 40%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 28. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 March 2022.
All research outputs
#1,356,436
of 24,885,505 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medical Education
#145
of 3,850 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#17,202
of 269,043 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Education
#2
of 59 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,885,505 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,850 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 269,043 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 59 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.