Diversity in the editorial boards of medical journals: a perspective from the Middle East

Despite the significant increase in women in academic medicine over the last 50 years, women are still under-represented in leadership positions in academia. However, there is a lack of data on the diversity of editorial boards in Middle Eastern medical journals. So, we aim to portray the diversity of editorial boards of Iraqi medical journals by conducting a cross-sectional analysis of the editorial boards' members of all Iraqi medical journals. Gender, affiliation and specialty were extracted from the journals' websites and/or from the professional profiles of the editorial board members. Twenty-five journals and 446 editorial board members were analysed. More than half of editorial board members specialized in basic science, while 39.76% specialized in clinical specialties. Approximately, 20.18% of editorial board members (regardless their role) were women. Four percent of editor-in-chief were women. There were significant differences in editorial role according to gender (p < 0.0001), yet residency (p = 0.688) and specialty (p = 0.190) did not differ according to their gender. Most editorial board members were affiliated with Baghdad. So, we can conclude that there is a significant under-representation of women across all roles on the editorial board of medical journals especially in the leading positions. All stakeholders, publishers, authors and academics should commit to ensure the diversity of editorial boards.