Key result
The COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly decrease the proportion of article submissions by female authors to the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research compared to the pre-pandemic period.
Why the study?
It was unknown whether the reported drop in female article submissions during the COVID-19 pandemic applies to sport and exercise sciences, and whether career status influences this behavior.
Observational (n=198)
Effect estimate: No significant gender × time period interaction
Absolute Event Rate: 35% vs 29%
p-value: p=not significant
The COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly alter the gender distribution of article submissions to a German sports science journal, though men consistently submitted more articles overall.
May signal lasting gender disparities in research output; leaves open targeted support strategies in exercise science.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments closed schools and imposed social distancing requirements, limiting childcare options and requiring researchers to stay at home. Recent studies indicated that women are particularly negatively affected by the pandemic containment measures. Depending on discipline and type of publication, it is stated that the number of submissions by women has fallen dramatically, but submissions by men have remained constant or even increased. The aim of this study is to examine whether a decrease in article submissions during the COVID-19 pandemic by women also applies to the field of sport and exercise sciences using the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research as an example. Furthermore, this study aimed to investigate to what extent career status has an influence on submission behavior during COVID-19. The current analysis focuses on 198 submissions to the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, which were systematically examined with regard to the first authorship of articles submitted from April 1st, 2019 to March 31st, 2021. Results of a log-linear analysis show that men submitted significantly more articles. The gap between women and men is greatest in the position of professors, which reflects the distribution of women and men in scientific employees. However, no significant differences in submission behavior are found before vs. during the pandemic. This study functions as a starting point for the discipline of sport and exercise science from which submission behavior should be further monitored taking into account individual and social factors which might influence submission behavior.
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Henning et al. (2023) conducted an observational in Article submissions to a scientific journal (n=198). COVID-19 pandemic vs. Pre-COVID-19 period (April 2019 - March 2020) was evaluated on Proportion of article submissions by female first authors (No significant gender × time period interaction, p=not significant). The COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly decrease the proportion of article submissions by female authors to the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research compared to the pre-pandemic period.
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