The meaning of the 'impact factor' in the case of an open-access journal

The dominant model of journal evaluation emerged at the time when there were no open-access journals, and nobody has assessed yet whether this model is able to cope with this modern reality. This commentary attempts to fill the gaps in the common understanding of the role that 'impact factor' should play in evaluation of open-access journals

Sex, Gender, Genetics, and Health

This article addresses 2 questions. First, to what extent are sex and gender incorporated into research on genetics and health? Second, how might social science understandings of sex and gender, and gender differences in health, become more integrated into scholarship in this area? We review articles on genetics and health published in selected peer-reviewed journals. Although sex is included frequently as a control or stratifying variable, few articles articulate a conceptual frame or methodological justification for conducting research in this way, and most are not motivated by sex or gender differences in health. Gender differences in health are persistent, unexplained, and shaped by multilevel social factors. Future scholarship on genetics and health needs to incorporate more systematic attention to sex and gender, gender as an environment, and the intertwining of social and biological variation over the life course. Such integration will advance understandings of gender differences in health, and may yield insight regarding the processes and circumstances that make genomic variation relevant for health and well-being

Gender bias in cardiovascular advertisements

Rationale: Women with cardiovascular disease are treated less aggressively than men. The reasons for this disparity are unclear. Pharmaceutical advertisements may influence physician practices and patient care. Aims and objective: To determine if female and male patients are equally likely to be featured in cardiovascular advertisements. Methods: We examined all cardiovascular advertisements from US editions of general medical and cardiovascular journals published between 1 January 1996 and 30 June 1998. For each unique advertisement, we recorded the total number of journal appearances and the number of appearances in journals' premium positions. We noted the gender, age, race and role of both the primary figure and the majority of people featured in the advertisement. Results: Nine hundred and nineteen unique cardiovascular advertisements were identified of which 254 depicted a patient as the primary figure. A total of 20% [95% confidence interval (CI) 15.3-25.5%] of these advertisements portrayed a female patient, while 80% (95% CI 74.5-84.7%) depicted a male patient, P < 0.0001. Female patient advertisements appeared 249 times (13.3%; 95% CI 8.6-18.9%) while male patient advertisements appeared 1618 times (86.7%; 95% CI 81.1-91.4%), P < 0.0001. Female patient advertisements also had significantly fewer mean appearances than male patient advertisements in journals' premium positions (0.82 vs. 1.99, P=0.02). Similar results were seen when the advertisements were analysed according to predominant gender. Conclusions: Despite increasing emphasis on cardiovascular disease in women, significant under-representation of female patients exists in cardiovascular advertisements. Physicians should be cognizant of this gender bias.Ontario Ministry of Health Services Research Career Scientist AwardOntario Ministry of Health Services Research Career Scientist Awar