Gender and Publishing in Nursing: a secondary analysis of h-index ranking tables.

Abstract

AIMS: To analyse published ranking tables on academics' h-index scores to establish whether male nursing academics are disproportionately represented in these tables compared with their representation across the whole profession. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have identified a disproportionate representation of UK male nursing academics in publishing in comparison to their US counterparts. DESIGN: Secondary statistical analysis, which involved comparative correlation of proportions. METHODS: Four papers from the UK, Canada and Australia containing h-index ranking tables and published between 2010-2017, were re-analysed in June 2017 to identify authors' sex. Pearson's chi-squared test was applied to ascertain whether the number of men included in the tables was statistically proportionate to the number of men on the pertinent national professional register. FINDINGS: There was a disproportionate number of men with high h-index scores in the UK and Canadian data sets, compared with the proportion of men on the pertinent national registers. The number of men in the Australian data set was proportionate with the number of men on the nursing register. There was a disproportionate number of male professors in UK universities. CONCLUSION: The influence of men over nursing publishing in the UK and Canada outweighs their representation across the whole profession. Similarly, in the UK, men's representation in the professoriate is disproportionately great. However, the Australian results suggest that gender inequality is not inevitable and that it is possible to create more egalitarian nursing cultures. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.