A quarter-century of pain science in Türkiye: Thematic, institutional, and gender trends in AĞRI (2000-2025).

Abstract

Background: This study aims to evaluate thematic, institutional, and gender-related changes of AĞRI, the official journal of the Turkish Society of Algology.

Material and methods: We processed all open-access manuscripts published from January 2000 through December 2025 using a custom Python pipeline for metadata, affiliations, and rule-based topic clustering. Gender was inferred from a Turkish name-gender dictionary with manual adjudication. We measured female workforce participation, female corresponding authorship rate, and the Glass Ceiling Gap (GCG; workforce mean minus corresponding-author rate; negative values indicate leadership surplus). Trends used Cochran-Armitage tests with Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Female corresponding authorship was compared with 50% parity using two-sided z-tests and Wilson 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Logistic regression modeled female corresponding authorship and internationalization.

Results: A total of 855 manuscripts were analyzed, while 2003 was absent from the archive. Interventional pain papers rose from 34 in the first quinquennium to 151 in the last. Universities' share declined from 77.0% to 66.7%, whereas Training and Research Hospitals' share rose from 5.7% to 18.6%. Female workforce participation remained approximately 46.5%. Female corresponding authorship was 49.0% (95% CI: 45.7-52.4%), did not differ from parity (p = 0.56), and yielded a small, non-significant negative GCG (approximately -2.5%). Departmental gaps were precise only in high-volume disciplines; apparent surpluses in small departments had CIs spanning parity. Interventional studies were less likely to have female corresponding authors (odds ratio [OR] = 0.54).

Conclusion: AĞRI demonstrates procedural maturation, institutional decentralization, and female corresponding authorship near parity, suggesting no apparent glass ceiling. Departmental leadership surpluses require confirmation with seniority and governance indicators.