Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society
September 1, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Gender Disparity in Movement Disorders Research Authorship: Progress and Persistent Gaps Across a Decade.
Garg D, Aldaajani Z, Auffret M, +11 more, Steering Committee of the MDS Women in Movement Disorders Special Interest Group.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Women's first authorship in movement disorders publishing improved modestly over a decade, but senior authorship stagnated.
What was studied
A bibliometric analysis of movement disorders articles published in 2014 and 2024 in 20 high-impact neurology journals and two movement disorders journals.
Key findings
- Overall women authorship 38% in 2014 and 41.1% in 2024
- Senior women authorship 36% and 37%
- In Movement Disorders, women were 43% of first and 31% of senior authors in 2024
- No clear association with journal impact factor
Clinical relevance
Highlights persistent gaps in senior academic representation; descriptive data.
Who should care
Limitations
Gender inferred from names may misclassify; two time points only.
The first-to-senior authorship gap for women persists.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Background
Despite increasing numbers of women practising neurosciences, gender disparities persist in academic authorship. Focused evaluation of authorship patterns within movement disorders remains limited.
Objective
To examine trends in women authorship across movement disorders publications in high-impact neurology journals and movement disorders-specific journals across a decade.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional bibliometric analysis of movement disorder-related articles published in 2014 and 2024 in 20 neurology journals with the highest impact factor and two flagship movement disorders journals related to the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society. Women authorship proportions were calculated overall and by article type. First-to-senior authorship representation ratios were examined, and associations with journal impact factors were explored.
Results
A total of 919 articles (9431 authors) were analyzed in 2024 and 755 articles (5801 authors) in 2014. Overall women authorship was 41.1% in 2024 compared with 38% in 2014 and senior (last) women authorship was 37% (2024) and 36% (2014). In 2024, women accounted for 43% of first and 31% of senior authors in Movement Disorders, compared with 41% and 27%, respectively, in 2014. A representation gap from first-to-senior authorship persisted across most journals. No clear association was observed between journal impact factor and women authorship.
Conclusions
Over the past decade, women's representation in movement disorders publishing improved at first authorship levels but remained stagnant at low levels in senior authorship roles. Persistent lacuna between first and senior women authorship is an underexplored gap that may reflect a combination of structural barriers, cohort effects, and life-course factors. © 2026 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
DOI
10.1002/mds.70507
PMID
42680703
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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