A new analysis of Nature’s Nature Index—which tracks natural science and health science journals—demonstrates that the gender gap in research publishing is slowly improving, though there is plenty of room for improvement. The analysis explored gender parity in paper authorship by factors such as scientific field, institution, and country. Canada was one of three countries to have female author representation of more than 30%. When examined by field, the highest proportion of female authorship tended to be in the health sciences, in fields such as reproductive medicine (53%) and paediatrics (50%), while the lowest was found in physical sciences, in fields such as mathematical physics (10%). Lynn Nygaard (Peace Research Institute of Oslo) commented that reaching gender parity in research publishing will require a deep commitment and long-term coordination across countries and institutions.
