The Gendered Nature of Authorship in Music Psychology

Academia suffers from various equity issues. One such issue is gender inequality in authorship, where many studies show that women are less represented compared to men. Due to authorship differences across disciplines, the goal of this study is to provide a current overview of the gender distribution of authorship within music psychology. A total of 3,383 papers published between 2000 and 2025 across five core music psychology journals were analyzed with respect to author gender and authorship role (first, last, solo, and coauthor). In addition, we explored gender patterns related to citations, open access publishing, and keywords. Overall, women authors were in the minority, accounting for 40.2% of all authors. However, the distribution of authorship roles diverged notably from this overall proportion: women were more likely to be first authors (odds ratio, OR = 1.41), equally likely to be solo authors (OR = 1.11) or coauthors (OR = 1.00), but less likely to be last authors (OR = 0.73). These patterns have become more pronounced over the past 15 years. Time-adjusted citations differed by first author gender, favoring women authors. Analyses of geographical variation revealed clear country and continental differences, potentially reflecting both the status of women and the historical development of the discipline in particular regions. Finally, an examination of keywords suggested broad thematic preferences differing by gender. Although this work overall shows that the field of music psychology is more balanced than some other (STEM) fields, it provides a picture to inspire discussions and initiatives to further promote fairness and equity in academia.