Authors’ reply to Xu

We thank Xu for sharing her thoughts and experiences, which will surely resonate with many female researchers worldwide.1Women in academia often experience a lack of self-confidence, especially early in their careers. Women’s belief in their own abilities can be undermined by persisting gender stereotypes and social norms. Researchers, especially women from low income countries, should have a voice in scientific debate by peer reviewing earlier in their careers and co-authoring scientific papers in prominent authorship positions.2 Men and senior researchers need more actively to include women and under-represented groups in scientific discourse, including authorship and peer review.We agree that it will be challenging and that understanding barriers is paramount. Editors, the majority of whom are men from high income countries, need to make more effort to identify and invite reviewers from poorly represented groups3 as well as consider how they might adapt the peer review process to improve participation.Generally, peer…
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