Surgical research journals - Under review: An assessment of diversity among editorial boards and outcomes of peer review

Erin M White; Richard C Maduka; Dena Ballouz; Herbert Chen; Steven D Wexner; Kevin E Behrns; Keith D Lillemoe; Scott A LeMaire; Douglas S Smink; Gurjit Sandhu

doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.09.027

Surgical research journals - Under review: An assessment of diversity among editorial boards and outcomes of peer review

Am J Surg. 2021 Dec;222(6):1104-1111. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.09.027. Epub 2021 Sep 29.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Yale School of Medicine, Department of Surgery; 330 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA. Electronic address: erin.white@yale.edu.
² Yale Cancer Center, Advanced Training Program for Physician Scientist NIH T32 Fellowship, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA. Electronic address: richard.maduka@yale.edu.
³ University of Michigan W.K. Kellogg Eye Center, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. Electronic address: dballouz@med.umich.edu.
⁴ Department of Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA. Electronic address: hchen@uabmc.edu.
⁵ Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL, 33331, USA. Electronic address: wexners@ccf.org.
⁶ University of Florida Health Central Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. Electronic address: kbehrns@centflhealth.org.
⁷ Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Surgery, Boston, MA, 02114, USA. Electronic address: klillemoe@mgh.harvard.edu.
⁸ Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA; Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, TX, 77030, USA; Cardiovascular Research Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA. Electronic address: slemaire@bcm.edu.
⁹ Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. Electronic address: dsmink@bwh.harvardedu.
¹⁰ Department of Surgery, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA; Department of Learning Health Sciences, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. Electronic address: gurjit@med.umich.edu.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed racism as a public health crisis embedded in structural processes. Editors of surgical research journals pledged their commitment to improve structure and process through increasing diversity in the peer review and editorial process; however, little benchmarking data are available.

Methods: A survey of editorial board members from high impact surgical research journals captured self-identified demographics. Analysis of manuscript submissions from 2016 to 2020 compared acceptance for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-focused manuscripts to overall rates.

Results: 25.6% of respondents were female, 2.9% Black, and 3.3% Hispanic. There was variation in the diversity among journals and in the proportion of DEI submissions they attract, but no clear correlation between DEI acceptance rates and board diversity.

Conclusions: Diversity among board members reflects underrepresentation of minorities seen among surgeons nationally. Recruitment and retention of younger individuals, representing more diverse backgrounds, may be a strategy for change. DEI publication rates may benefit from calls for increasing DEI scholarship more so than changes to the peer review process.

Keywords: Diversity; Editorial boards; Gender; Race; Surgical research.

MeSH terms

Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Biomedical Research
Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
Cultural Diversity*
Editorial Policies
Female
General Surgery*
Hispanic or Latino / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Peer Review* / methods
Periodicals as Topic*
Sex Factors
United States
White People / statistics & numerical data