A Data-Based Approach to Evaluate Representation by Gender and Affiliation in Key Presentation Formats at the SER Annual Meeting.

The Society for Epidemiologic Research's (SER) annual meeting is a major forum for sharing new research and promoting participants' career development. As such, evaluating representation in key presentation formats is critical. For the 3,257 presentations identified at the 2015-2017 SER annual meetings, we evaluated presenter characteristics, including gender, affiliation, subject area and h-index, and representation in three highlighted presentation formats: platform talks (n=382), invited symposium talks (n=273) and serving as a Concurrent Contributed Session or symposium chair (n=188). Data were abstracted from SER records, abstract booklets and programs. Gender was assessed using GenderChecker software and h-index using Scopus Application Programming Interface (API). Log-binomial models adjusted for participant characteristics and conference year. In adjusted models, women were less likely than men to present an invited symposium talk (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.45, 0.81) versus those with accepted abstracts. Researchers from U.S. public universities, U.S. government institutions and international institutions were less likely to present a symposium talk or chair a Concurrent Contributed Session or symposium than researchers from U.S. private institutions. Research areas most represented in platform talks were epidemiologic methods, social epidemiology and cardiovascular epidemiology. Findings suggest differences in representation by gender, affiliation and subject area after accounting for h-index.