Comparison of the Proportions of Female and Male Corresponding Authors in Preprint Research Repositories Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Health Disparities | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

Comparison of the Proportions of Female and Male Corresponding Authors in Preprint Research Repositories Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Health Disparities | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

How the gender gap in preprint authorship has changed during Covid-19

The proportion of female corresponding authors — a signifier of seniority or other leading role in the research being presented — on papers posted to preprint servers has dipped during the Covid-19 pandemic. Scientists looked at more than a year's worth of data from medRxiv and bioRxiv, and found that the gender gap among medRxiv papers increased from 23% in January 2020 to 55% in April this year. Among bioRxiv papers, the gap remained steady at around 46%. These trends persisted regardless of whether the authors were based at U.S. institutions or not. Changes to school and work schedules as a result of the pandemic have meant that parents, especially women, have had to bear the brunt of disruptions, which is likely to have affected their work, the authors suggest.