A Bibliometric Analysis of the Contributions of Turkish Female Authors to ?Turkish Neurosurgery?

Aim: To assess the contributions of Turkish female authors to the field of neurosurgery through ?Turkish Neurosurgery?, the only neurosurgery journal in Türkiye indexed by The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE).

Material and methods: A bibliometric analysis was conducted on articles published in ?Turkish Neurosurgery? from 2019 to 2023. Data were gathered on authorship, gender distribution, article types, topics, and institutional affiliations. Statistical analyses included chi-square tests, the Cochran?Armitage test, and logistic regression to evaluate the association between female senior and first authorship.

Results: Of the 751 articles reviewed, 505 featured contributions from at least one Turkish author, comprising 2,601 Turkish contributors (24.8% female, 74.4% male). Turkish female authors appeared in 292 of these publications (57.8%), serving as first authors in 103 (20.4%) and senior authors in 92 (18.2%). The proportion of Turkish female first authorship increased significantly over the study period, peaking at 31.2% in 2022 (p=0.049). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the presence of a Turkish female senior author significantly increased the likelihood of female first authorship (OR = 3.96, p < 0.001). Only 16.2% of Turkishauthored articles included female neurosurgeons. Of all Turkish female authors, 23.6% of first authors and 19.6% of senior authors were neurosurgeons. Most publications by Turkish female authors (59.7%) were original research articles, primarily focusing on neuro-oncology, spine, and functional neurosurgery.

Conclusion: This study highlights encouraging progress in the representation of Turkish female authors, particularly neurosurgeons, who exhibit strong academic engagement relative to their workforce proportion in neurosurgical academic publishing. Mentorship plays a crucial role in increasing female first authorship. To strengthen this effect, academic institutions could implement structured mentorship programs, fund collaborative research, and establish platforms to connect senior and junior female researchers.