Validation of a novel system to quantify authorship diversity in orthopaedic surgery literature

Purpose: The diversity of authors in orthopaedic literature is fundamental to the distribution of unique discoveries, innovations, and advancements. The purpose of the current study was to create and validate a comprehensive Author Diversity Scoring System (ADSS) to quantify authorship diversity in orthopaedic manuscripts.

Methods: Six items were included in the initial ADSS. The ADSS and associated survey were sent to 120 experts to evaluate the clarity, simplicity, and relevancy its components. Responses were used to validate the ADSS using Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI).

Results: The initial ADSS contained author gender, ethnicity, academic rank/title, country of origin of the article, affiliated institution, and the publication history of the senior/corresponding author as representative items. Subsequently, 21 experts completed the survey (response rate 17.5%). Following validation, the final ADSS included author gender, ethnicity, and region of article origin, scored cumulatively on a 0-30 point scale with increasing scores indicating greater author diversity.

Conclusion: The validated ADSS scoring system quantitatively assesses manuscript author diversity.