Telehealth in physiotherapy is moving towards equitable authorship: a bibliometric study

Abstract

[Abstract] Background. Gender inequalities contribute to women researchers receiving fewer grants, citations and leadership positions. Considering the growth of telehealth studies in physiotherapy, we are unaware of the gender representation and implications.

Purpose. To analyse gender equity in authorship and its trend over time among publications in telehealth physiotherapy research.

Materials and methods. This bibliometric study analysed telehealth trials indexed in the PEDro from inception to December 2022. We used the WoS database and CWTS data to help ascertain the bibliometric data indicators and assign the author’s gender. We analysed the data descriptively for first- and last-author gender with bibliometric data, subdiscipline, publication characteristics and funding.

Results. We identified 1284 (89%) first author names and 1236 (86%) last author names. First authorship was higher for women than for men author (64% vs. 36%). Last authorship was higher for women than for men author (52% vs. 48%). Women authors seem to be more collaborative than men in telehealth physiotherapy. The cumulative change over the years for women first and last author is 11–12% in physiotherapy research.

Conclusions. There is a significant representativeness of women first authors and almost similar representativeness in the last women author in telehealth studies in physiotherapy.