Diversity in high-impact psychiatric publishing: gender parity within reach?

Gender parity and authorship diversity are declared goals in the publishing world. This study assessed the progress of authorship gender distribution over a quarter of a century and geographic diversity over the last 15 years in high-impact psychiatric journals. All articles published in 2019 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry, and JAMA Psychiatry were included and compared with data from three points in time starting in 1994. Descriptive statistics were gathered, and chi-square tests were performed. All tests were conducted as two-tailed, and p-values < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Inter-rater reliability was calculated via Cohen’s kappa. In 2019 a total of 473 articles were published. Forty percent of all authors, 42.3% of first authors, and 29.4% of senior authors were female. Counting original research articles only, female first authorship reached 50.4%. In the 25-year period between 1994 and 2019, female first (p < .001), female senior (p < .001), and female overall (p < .001) authorship has increased. In the specific period between 2014 and 2019, overall female senior authorship in all articles (p = .940) as well as first (p = .101) and senior (p = .157) in original research plateaued. In non-original research articles, female first authorship was higher in 2019 compared to 2014 (p = .014), whilst female senior authorship plateaued (p = .154). Geographic diversity was low and did not change over time. Gender parity in the subcategory original research articles was reached for the first time in 2019. Senior female authorship and geographic diversity remain areas of concern that need further investigation and specific interventions.

Differentiation of Mediterranean species of Juniperus from the Sabina section as a result of their migrations

The Sabina section is one of the three groups in the Juniperus genus and the most diverse. The variability of Mediterranean junipers from the Sabina section is related to their Tertiary and Pleistocene migrations and long-term isolations. Their contemporary taxonomic and geographic diversity was influenced by important events such as the migration of continents, the disappearance of Tethys, orogenic movements or the Messinian salinity crisis. The results of morphological measurements of seed cones, seeds and branchlets with leaves of 19 populations of Juniperus phoenicea complex, J. excelsa s.s., J. thurifera subsp. thurifera and subs. africana, J. foetidissima and J. sabina var. sabina and var. balkanensis were statistically compiled using univariate statistics and multivariate analysis. The most important characters differentiating the populations within the taxa were the thickness of the branchlet and the cone diameter, while between the taxa the ratio of cone diameter to the width of the seeds and the number of seeds per cone were used for speciation. J. phoenicea complex is distinguished from the other studied taxa by the greatest number of characters. J. foetidissima, J. sabina var. sabina and J. canariensis are characterized by the highest variability of morphological characters, while J. excelsa and J. sabina var. balkanensis – the lowest. The studies confirmed the ancient nature of the J. phoenicea complex in relation to other taxa from the Sabina section, as a result of an earlier detachment from the ancestor, and no loss of variability due to the effects of colonization and isolation in J. canariensis. In addition, the similarity of J. sabina and J. thurifera was demonstrated, which would confirm the descent from a common ancestor and similar migration routes from the center of Europe towards the Iberian Peninsula, as well as further differentiation of J. thurifera into subspecies caused by isolation due to the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar. The distinctiveness of J. foetidissima from all the other analyzed taxa was also confirmed, and some morphological similarity was shown, proving the original character of J. excelsa s.s. and its similarity to the J. phoenicea complex in this respect.

octoFLUshow: an Interactive Tool Describing Spatial and Temporal Trends in the Genetic Diversity of Influenza A Virus in U.S. Swine

Influenza A virus (IAV) is passively surveilled in swine in the United States through a U.S. Department of Agriculture-administered surveillance system. We present an interactive Web tool to visualize and explore trends in the genetic and geographic diversity of IAV derived from the surveillance system.

NLR Diversity and Candidate Fusiform Rust Resistance Genes in Loblolly Pine

Resistance to fusiform rust disease in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) is a classic gene-for-gene system. Early resistance gene mapping in the P. taeda family 10-5 identified RAPD markers for a major fusiform rust resistance gene, Fr1. More recently SNP markers associated with resistance were mapped to a full-length gene model in the loblolly pine genome encoding for an NLR protein. NLR genes are one of the most abundant gene families in plant genomes and are involved in effector-triggered immunity. Inter- and intraspecies studies of NLR gene diversity and expression have resulted in improved disease resistance. To characterize NLR gene diversity and discover potential resistance genes, we assembled de novo transcriptomes from 92 loblolly genotypes from across the natural range of the species. In these transcriptomes, we identified novel NLR transcripts that are not present in the loblolly pine reference genome and found significant geographic diversity of NLR genes providing evidence of gene family-evolution. We designed capture probes for these NLRs to identify and map SNPs that stably cosegregate with resistance to the SC20-21 isolate of Cronartium quercuum f.sp. fusiforme (Cqf) in half-sib progeny of the 10-5 family. We identified ten SNPs and two QTL associated with resistance to SC20-21 Cqf. The geographic diversity of NLR genes provides evidence of NLR gene family-evolution in loblolly pine. The SNPs associated with rust resistance provide a resource to enhance breeding and deployment of resistant pine seedlings.

Genetic Diversity Studies in Seed Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) Genotypes

Thirty three seed cow genotypes (Vigna unguiculata L. WALP) collected from different geographical region were assessed for their genetic divergence based on ten characters during kharif-2020 at Post Graduate Farm, MPKV, Rahuri. The genotypes were grouped into six clusters which indicating high genetic diversity among them. It indicated that genetic diversity and geographic diversity are not related. The present study revealed that days to 50% flowering contributed maximum (34.09%) for divergence followed by plant height (32.58%), number of pods per plant (10.98%) and test weight (8.71%). Based on inter-cluster distance, intra-cluster distance and per se performance the genotypes viz., CP-04, CP-10, CP-10R, PCP-1411, CP-37, CP-10R,CP-39 and Phule Sonali are suggested to utilize for future breeding programme.

Assessing the effect of article processing charges on the geographic diversity of authors using Elsevier’s ‘Mirror Journal’ system

Journals publishing open access (OA) articles often require that authors pay article processing charges (APC). Researchers in the Global South often cite APCs as a major financial obstacle to OA publishing, especially in widely-recognized or prestigious outlets. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that authors from the Global South will be underrepresented in journals charging APCs. We tested this hypothesis using &gt;37,000 articles from Elsevier’s ‘Mirror journal’ system, in which a hybrid ‘Parent’ journal and its Gold-OA ‘Mirror’ share editorial boards and standards for acceptance. Most articles were non-OA; 45% of articles had lead authors based in either the United States of America (USA) or China. After correcting for the effect of this dominance and differences in sample size, we found that OA articles published in Parent and Mirror journals had lead authors with similar Geographic Diversity. However, Author Geographic Diversity of OA articles was significantly lower than that of non-OA articles. Most OA articles were written by authors in high-income countries, and there were no articles in Mirror journals by authors in low-income countries. Our results for Elsevier’s Mirror-Parent system are consistent with the hypothesis that APCs are a barrier to OA publication for scientists from the Global South.