Methods:
See our January 2018 Journal Watch post for details on methods.
Base rates:
First authors are more likely to be graduate students or postdoctoral fellows. Using our calculations based on registration for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 49% of graduate students and postdocs in neuroscience are women.
For last or sole authors we take the base rate to be 32%, the percentage of women faculty at the same meeting. We take the base rate for all authors to be the overall percentage of 43%.
Data:
Journal of Neuroscience
Volume 38, Issues 14 through 17
Excluding: This Week in The Journal, Editorial, Correction, Erratum, Errata
First author gender ratio: 27 women : 33 men (45%)
Last/sole author gender ratio: 17 women : 50 men (25%)
Middle author gender ratio: 88 women : 145 men (38%)
All author gender ratio: 132 women : 228 men (37%)
Excluded: 2 last authors, 3 first authors and 24 middle authors. 29 in total.
Neuron
Volume 98, Issue 1 and Issue 2
Excluding: None
First author gender ratio: 10 women : 26 men (28%)
Last/sole author gender ratio: 12 women : 28 men (30%)
Middle author gender ratio: 44 women : 88 men (33%)
All author gender ratio: 66 women : 142 men (32%)
Excluded: 1 last author, 1 first author and 4 middle authors. 6 in total.
Nature Neuroscience
Volume 21, Issue 4
Excluding: None
First author gender ratio: 6 women : 16 men (27%)
Last/sole author gender ratio: 4 women : 18 men (18%)
Middle author gender ratio: 46 women : 75 men (38%)
All author gender ratio: 56 women : 109 men (34%)
Excluded: 0 last authors, 0 first authors and 4 middle authors. 4 in total.
eNeuro
Excluding: Erratum, Correction, Editorial
First author gender ratio: 14 women : 15 men (48%)
Last/sole author gender ratio: 8 women : 23 men (26%)
Middle author gender ratio: 43 women : 72 men (37%)
All author gender ratio: 65 women : 110 men (37%)
Excluded: 0 last authors, 2 first authors and 4 middle authors. 6 in total.
biaswatchneuro 