Impact of COVID-19 on gender gap in dental publications: a retrospective cohort with three Brazilian journals

Abstract This was a retrospective cohort study to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the gender gap in articles submitted to three international dental journals based in Brazil. All submissions performed to Brazilian Dental Journal, Brazilian Oral Research, and Journal of Applied Oral Science before (2019) and during the pandemic (2020) were assessed. Gender of the first, last, and corresponding authors were collected. Other variables collected were journal, continent studied by authors and stage of their careers (classified according to authors’ highest degree), and final decision reached in the article. Absolute and relative frequencies with 95% confidence intervals, Pearson’s Chi-square tests, and Fisher’s Exact test were used (α = 0.05). In total, 4,726 unique submissions were analyzed. A higher proportion of early-career authors was observed during the pandemic (44.8% to 49.3%, p = 0.021). Most articles were rejected but without association with gender. Increased proportion of male first authors from before to during the pandemic was observed (39% to 42.1%, p = 0.034). Drop in the proportion of articles with women as first authors was observed for researchers in their early- (65.9% to 58.8%, p = 0.02) and mid-career stages (63% to 55.8%, p = 0.014). Reduction in women as first authors was observed during the pandemic in South and Central Americas (66.7% to 61.5%, p = 0.010), and when the last author was a female, or the corresponding author was a male. In conclusion, a disproportionate impact on female dental researchers in submitting articles in the period from before to during the pandemic was observed when considering first authorship, suggesting that the COVID-19 may have increased the gender inequality in dental science.