We read with interest the recent article by Piper et al ( ) on women representation on radiology journal editorial boards and would like to commend the authors for presenting their data on this important topic.
The authors evaluate the percentage of women on four major radiology journals, namely Radiology, American Journal of Roentgenology, Academic Radiology and the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR). They compare statistics including percentage of women first-authors, women radiology faculty and women medical students. The authors point out that the proportion of women on radiology journal editorial boards (18.8% in 2013) is below the proportion of women first authors (27.1%). While we agree that first authorship suggests academic promise and is a marker of academic productivity, it is unclear if this signifies eligibility for editorial board membership. Editorial board positions are prestigious and inclusion on a board indicates distinction and prominence in one’s field. Many first author papers are written by early/mid-career faculty or trainees under the guidance of experienced mentors who serve as senior authors. Hence, it is not unexpected to see women editorial board membership (largely driven by women in the higher rungs of the academic ladder) being lower than the percentage of women first authors. Perhaps, percentage of women senior authors may have been a better (though imperfect) comparator. Given the known ceiling effect and leaky pipeline, it is expected to find lower women representation in journal editorial boards compared to the overall percentage of women faculty in radiology (28.1%).
Though the results are expected, we thank the authors and Academic Radiology for publishing this paper that serves as a status report on women representation in radiology journalism. There is increasing awareness about gender-based hindrances to academic advancement that leads to fewer women eligible for such prestigious positions. An important question that therefore arises is whether ‘eligible’ women radiologists are appropriately represented on the editorial boards.
We performed a similar study on women editorial board representation on the same four radiology journals and analyzed gender differences in representation at various academic ranks (Instructor/Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor) for the year 2018. The editorial board members were included if they were mentioned under the heading of Associate Editors (Radiology, Academic Radiology , JACR) and Section Editors (American Journal of Roentgenology). Any other editorial roles (e.g. assistant editors, editors emeriti, advisory panel, international liaisons, board of directors, consultants to the editor) were not analyzed given the difficulties in role ascertainment of this heterogeneous group. We performed a Google search to determine the current academic ranks of all the editorial board members of the four journals. To provide context, the proportion of women and men radiologists at various academic ranks was also determined from the American Association of Medical Colleges ( ).
Of the total 283 editorial members, we could not determine the academic ranks for 15 males and 1 female. As expected, the largest percentage of 267 editorial board members were professors (70%), followed by associate professors (20%) and assistant professors/instructors (10%). Women constituted 25% (46/187), 23% (12/52) and 50% (14/28) of the total number of professors, associate professors and assistant professors/instructors, respectively.
To put this in context, 2017 American Association of Medical Colleges data show that women academic radiologists constitute 21% of professors, 27% of associate and 33% of assistant/instructor ranks. Hence, there is good representation of women at different academic strata on the editorial boards ( ) ( Figure ). It is particularly encouraging to note that women constitute almost half of early career faculty (assistant professor/instructor). This inclusion of women at early stages of their academic career is a healthy sign of a promising future, and in turn gives them a chance to lead and mentor future generations. The proportion of women associate professors and professors in editorial boards is lower than for men, though proportionate to their percentage among academic radiologists.
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Figure
Representation of gender at different academic strata on radiology editorial board in 2018, compared to 2017 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) data. (Color version of figure is available online.)
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References
1. Piper CL, Scheel JR, Lee CI, et. al.: Representation of women on radiology journal editorial boards: a 40 year analysis. Acad Radiol 2018;
2. Association of American Medical Colleges web site. Available at: https://www.aamc.org/download/486102/data/17table13.pdf . Source: AAMC Faculty Roster, December 31, 2017 snapshot. Accessed June 13, 2018.