Write a PREreview

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the sex and the geographic distribution of editors-in-chief and associate editors in epidemiology journals.Study design: A cross-sectional analysis of editorial composition from epidemiology journals. The Journal Citation Reports database was used to identify active journals with “Epidemiology” in their name. Journals’ websites were manually identified and used for the extraction of the name, sex, and the affiliation’s country of all editors-in-chief and associate editors.Results: The search identified 47 eligible journals. In total, 454 editors were included. Of those, 17.6% (80) were judged to have an editor-in-chief (EiC) position, and 82.4% (374) were considered associate editors. 71.25% (57/80) of EiC were males, and 86.25% (69/80) were based in high-income countries. 54% (202/374) of associate editors were males, and 76.2% (285/374) were based in high-income countries. No EiC was based in a low-income country, and one associate editor (1/374, 0.27%) was based in a low-income country.Conclusion: Editors-in-chief and associate editors from epidemiology journals are primarily males and based in high-income countries. The lack of diversity prevents a representative research field and may impact the journal's perspective. Further action is required to assess the impact of geographical and sex imbalance in editorial decisions and to guarantee representativeness.