Gender Gaps in Publication: Plastic Surgery in Australasia

ABSTRACT Background While studies have explored the gender gap in scientific literature, there is a scarcity of information on the impact within surgical publications. We examine the gender gap in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery papers across two prominent Australasian journals. Methods All original clinical science articles published in AJOPS and ANZ Journal of Surgery were reviewed from 2018 to 2024. The gender of the first and last authors, as well as the subspecialty category, type of paper, journal volume, year and issue were entered in a database for further analysis. In addition, we examined whether first author gender was correlated to the gender of the senior faculty with whom they were co‐authored. Results A total of 344 papers met the inclusion criteria for the study. Male authorship was more prevalent accounting for 65% in comparison to female authorship at 35%. When selecting for editorials only, male first authors accounted for 83% (43) versus female fir