Analysis of Gender on Editorial Boards of Sport Sciences Journals

This study analyses gender distribution on editorial boards of journals in the Sport Sciences category included in Journal Citation Reports (JCR). As far as we know, this study provides the first measure of gender distribution on editorial boards in Sport Sciences. A database consisting of 4,596 editors of journals in the Sport Sciences category was collected. The gender of these editors is inferred based on their first name using the package Gender data included in the statistical software R. This article found that 23% of the 4,596 editor ships are held by women. This proportion decreases to 10% if we focus on the most important editor of the journal, the so-called Editor in Chief (EiC). However, having a woman EiC is positively correlated with the presence of women on editorial boards. No significant correlation between the impact factor of the journal and the proportion of women editors on its editorial board was found. In addition, most women holding the position of EiC of journals in the first and second quartiles share this position with men.