Three decades of transformation: a bibliometric study of gender and geographic trends in international orthopaedic journal publications

Listen to Brian and Lisa discuss the paper 'Three decades of transformation: a bibliometric study of gender and geographic trends in international orthopaedic journal publications' published in the December 2025 issue of Bone & Joint Research.

Click here to read the paper.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of AI Talks with Bone & Joint from the publishers of Bone & Joint Research. Today we'll be discussing the paper, 'Three decades of transformation: a bibliometric study of gender and geographic trends in international orthopaedic journal publications', published in December 2025 by P Jolbäck and colleagues. I am Brian, and with me is my co-host Lisa.

Hello, everyone. This study is quite fascinating. Brian, could you provide us with an overview of its objectives? Certainly Lisa. The main aim was to analyze the evolution of gender distribution among primary and senior authors, and to examine the geographical origins of articles published in three major orthopaedic journals based in Europe and North America.

The researchers focused on tracking these trends over three distinct periods: 2000 to 2004, 2010 to 2014, and 2020 to 2024. The motivation behind this [00:01:00] analysis is rooted in the ongoing efforts to address gender disparities in medical research. Despite progress, women remain under-represented in orthopaedics, both in practice and research.

Moreover, most previous studies predominantly analyze North American journals. So it was crucial to include European journals in this study as well. The researchers carried out a retrospective cross-sectional analysis, examining articles published over the three periods in three journals; Acta Orthopaedica, The Bone & Joint Journal and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

By using the Namsor application, they could assign gender to authors based on their names. They also collected data on the countries of origin for the articles. Using the Human Development Index to determine each country's development status. Their data set included a total of 7,381 articles across the different periods.

One of the striking findings was the significant increase in [00:02:00] female authorship over time. Female primary authorship rose from 238 articles, which is approximately 8.9%. In the first period to 495 articles, or 24.7% in the third period. Similarly, senior female authorship increased from 133 articles or 5.1% to 287 articles or 14.3% over the same periods.

It's impressive, and if we break it down by journals, we see that in Acta Orthopaedica, female primary authorship saw a 3.4-fold increase and senior authorship of 4.9-fold increase. For The Bone & Joint Journal, the increases were 2.3-fold for primary authors and 1.7-fold for senior authors. In Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, primary authorship grew 2.7-fold and senior authorship 3.6-fold.

The geographical [00:03:00] analysis revealed that Europe was the predominant contributor to Acta Orthopaedica and The Bone & Joint Journal, while North America led contributions in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. Interestingly, articles from developing countries have also increased, particularly in the Bone & Joint Journal and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research with China and India being key contributors.

Yes, although despite these promising changes, the representation from developing countries remains limited. For instance, in Acta Orthopaedica articles from developing countries only marginally increased from 0.8% in the first period to 1.7% in the third period.

There are also notable regional disparities. The increases in female authorship are closely associated with specific countries, rather than being spread uniformly across continents. This suggests that particular regions may be driving the overall trend of gender diversity in orthopaedic research. [00:04:00] Absolutely and addressing these barriers within the orthopaedic field could involve implementing structured mentorship and sponsorship programs, promoting equitable recruitment and promotion processes and offering flexible training and work arrangements.

To wrap up, Lisa, what would you say are the key takeaways from this study? I'd say the main insights are the substantial rise in female authorship in orthopaedic journal publications, the geographical trends showing that Europe and North America remain dominant and the growing, but still limited contributions from developing countries. These findings highlight both the progress made and the challenges that remain in achieving gender and geographic diversity in orthopaedic research.

That's a great summary. Thank you all for tuning into this episode of AI Talks With Bone & Joint. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode.

 Until next time.