Data from: Patterns of authorship in ecology and evolution: first, last and corresponding authorship vary with gender and geography

The position of an author on the byline of a paper affects the inferences
readers make about their contributions to the research. We examine gender
differences in authorship in the ecology literature using two datasets:
submissions to six journals between 2010 and 2015 (regardless of whether
they were accepted), and manuscripts published by 151 journals between
2009 and 2015. Women were less likely to be last (i.e., ‘senior’) authors
(averaging ~23% across journals, years and datasets) and sole authors
(~24%), but more likely to be first author (~38%), relative to their
overall frequency of authorship (~31%). However, the proportion of women
in all authorship roles, except sole authorship, has increased
year-on-year. Women were less likely to be authors on papers with male
last authors, and all-male papers were more abundant than expected given
the overall gender ratio. Women were equally-well represented on papers
published in higher versus lower impact factor journals at all authorship
positions. Female first authors were less likely to serve as corresponding
author of their papers; this difference increased with the degree of
gender inequality in the author’s home country, but did not depend on the
gender of the last author. First authors from non-English speaking
countries were less likely to serve as corresponding author of their
papers, especially if the last author was from an English-speaking
country. That women more often delegate corresponding authorship to one of
their coauthors may increase the likelihood that readers undervalue their
role in the research by shifting credit for their contributions to
coauthors. We suggest that author contribution statements be more
universally adopted and that these statements declare how and/or why the
corresponding author was selected for this role.