How much of HERstory is in the HIStory of the Journal of Applied Physiology?

Abstract

Female underrepresentation in research has been a longstanding issue in clinical trials and health-related research. However, minimal data exist relative to this underrepresentation in physiology studies. To address this, we reviewed every article published in the Journal of Applied Physiology from 1948 to 2023. Articles were coded as human or animal study, or nonexperimental, and the number of female/male research participants, authors, and first/last authors. Across the Journal of Applied Physiology's 75 yr, relative to human research studies the percentage of female research participants was 34% and the percentage of studies including female research participants was similar. Thus almost twice as many male research participants were studied (∼230,000 vs. ∼120,000), and there were twice as many studies including male compared to those including female research participants (10,318 vs. 5,138 studies). Furthermore, there were 10 times as many studies with only male versus only female research participants (5,757 vs. 559 studies). The percentage of female authors over the Journal of Applied Physiology history was 20% or four times more male authors compared to female authors (73,885 vs. 18,782 authors). The percentage of papers with female first/last authors was 28% or three times more male compared to female first/last authors (15,237 vs. 5,825 papers). All measures of female research participants and authors increased over the Journal of Applied Physiology's history. However, the long-term outcome of the underrepresentation of female research participants and authors persists until the present. Thus Journal of Applied Physiology clearly has substantially less of HERstory than HIStory represented in its 75 yr of publication.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Females have been consistently underrepresented in the Journal of Applied Physiology, both as research participants and as manuscript authors. This study provides a comprehensive audit of the journal's publications from its inception in 1948 through the end of 2023 to examine these biological sex-related trends over time. Except for 2023, data reveal a persistent and significant gap in the inclusion of female participants and authors throughout the journal's history.