Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Underrepresentation of women last authors in Nature Physics

Nature Physics volume 21, pages 491–493 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Last-author papers are vital to the career advancement of researchers in many physics subfields. We present data on the underrepresentation of women as last authors in Nature Physics and discuss the implications.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Demographics of last-author gender across ten years of Nature Physics original research reports (articles and letters).

References

  1. Percent of physics faculty members who are women, 2002–2022. AIP https://www.aip.org/statistics/data-graphics/percent-physics-faculty-members-who-are-women-2002-2022 (2022).

  2. Bossmann, A. B. & Sandner, A. Women in physics in Germany: current developments and actions taken toward equal opportunities. In AIP Conference Proceedings 3040, 050016 (AIP, 2023).

  3. Jin, K. Women in physics working group of the Chinese Physical Society, Beijing. In AIP Conference Proceedings 2109, 050011 (AIP, 2019).

  4. Academic staff in UK physics departments. IOP https://www.iop.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/Staff-characteristics-2017-18.pdf (2020).

  5. Jona, M. E. & Nir, Y. Women in physics in Israel: an overview. In AIP Conference Proceedings 2109, 050022 (AIP, 2019).

  6. Huang, J., Gates, A. J., Sinatra, R. & Barabási, A. L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 4609–4616 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. VanHelene, A. D. et al. PLOS Digital Health 3, e0000456 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Nature publishes too few papers from women researchers—that must change. Nature 627, 7–8 (2024).

  9. Seidel Malkinson, T. et al. PLOS One 18, e0294805 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Basson, I. et al. eLife 12, RP90049 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bianchini, S., Llerena, P., Öcalan-Özel, S. & Özel, E. Humanit. Soc. Sci. Commun. 9, 195 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge O. Toader for the help he provided in compiling the country affiliation data. Thank you also to S. A. Burke, A. Damascelli, J. Day, E. Hennessey, J. McIver, and S. Mendez Álcala for helpful conversations and feedback. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and the Sloan Research Fellowships programme.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Alannah M. Hallas

  2. Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Alannah M. Hallas

  3. Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Alannah M. Hallas

Authors
  1. Alannah M. Hallas
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alannah M. Hallas.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Physics thanks Yangqiuting Li and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hallas, A.M. Underrepresentation of women last authors in Nature Physics. Nat. Phys. 21, 491–493 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02857-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02857-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing