First and last authors more likely to be men in leading science journals

Women’s growing participation in research is not always matched by high-profile authorship positions. Credit: Pierre Trihan/AFP via Getty In some ways, women have made incredible gains in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In 2022, they represented 41% of all active researchers, globally — up from 28% in 2001 — and 44% of new US science and engineering doctorates in 2023. However, an analysis of first and last authorship in journals tracked by Nature Index reveals a persistent gender imbalance in these markers of scientific contribution and authority, indicating that recognition in top-tier academic publishing has not kept pace with women’s growing presence in research. Among the natural-sciences journals tracked by the index, women represented 29% of first-author positions and 17% of last-author positions in 2025. These figures have improved only slightly over the past decade (see ‘Slow progress’), up from 28% of first-author positions and 15% of last-author positions in 2015, and are nowhere near gender parity — having women make up 40–60% of these authorships. The fact that women make up less than one-third of first authors and less than one-fifth of last authors in this data set is troubling because of the status that is baked into these positions, says Cassidy Sugimoto, an information scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. …