Gender Gap in Bibliometric Indices of Academic and Non-Academic Italian ICU Physicians

Hirsch-index, better known as, H-index is an important bibliometric index for Italian critical care physicians. Aim of our study was to collect the H-index of all Italian critical care academic physicians and compare it with the Italian Ministry of University and Research thresholds necessary to be eligible as Professor, and to investigate potential gender disparities in such bibliometric indices. Materials and Methods. We collected all the names of academic ICU physicians on June 24 th , 2023 from the official Italian Ministry of University and Research website. We added non-academic ICU physicians searching on Scopus or among academic physicians’ collaborators. Minimum thresholds to be eligible as Professor were identified through the official Italian Ministry of University and Research website. Median H-index of men and women were compared. Results. The total number of included physicians was 237 (46 Full Professors, 88 Associate Professors, 79 Researchers and 22 Non-academic physicians). Minimum threshold to be eligible as Associate Professor was 6 and to be eligible as Full Professor was 13. The median H-index in men versus women in every subgroup was: Full Professors (38 [27–49] vs 29 [21–34]), Associate Professors (25 [18–32] vs 22 [18–28]), Researchers (12 [7–21] vs 9 [6–16]) and Non-academic physicians (27 [25–37] vs 26 [25–29]). Conclusion. Current median H-index of Italian academic ICU physicians is considerably greater than minimum thresholds released by the Italian Ministry of University and Research to be eligible as Professor. Gender gap in bibliometric indices of academic ICU physicians remains.