Gender Disparity in Citations in High-Impact Journal Articles

Importance: Women are less likely to be promoted and hold leadership positions in academic medicine. How often academic articles are cited is a key measure of scholarly impact and frequently assessed for professional advancement; however, it is unknown whether peer-reviewed articles written by men and women are cited differently. Objective: To evaluate whether academic articles from high-impact medical journals written by men and women are cited differently. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this cross-sectional study of all original research and commentary articles from 5 high-impact medical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine) from 2015 to 2018, the gender of the primary and senior authors of each article were identified using an online database, and the number of times each article has been cited was identified using Web of Science. The number of citations by primary and senior author gender were then compared. Data were analyzed from July 2020 to April 2021. Exposures: Primary and senior authors' genders. Main Outcomes and Measures: Number of citations per article. Results: Among 5554 articles, women wrote 1975 (35.6%) as primary author and 1273 of 4940 (25.8%) as senior author. Original research articles written by women as primary authors had fewer median (interquartile range) citations than articles written by men as primary authors (36 17-82 citations vs 54 22-141 citations; P < .001) and senior authors (37 17-93 citations vs 51 20-128 citations; P < .001). Articles written by women as both primary and senior authors had approximately half as many median (interquartile range) citations as those authored by men as both primary and senior authors (33 15-68 citations vs 59 23-149 citations; P < .001). Differences in citations remained in each year of the study and were less pronounced among commentary articles. Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, articles written by women in high-impact medical journals had fewer citations than those written by men, particularly when women wrote together as primary and senior authors. These differences may have important consequences for the professional success of women and achieving gender equity in academic medicine.