biostudies-literatureUnknown16(2)Liu MScience Foundation of Ministry of Education of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Science FoundationBased on publication data on coronavirus-related fields, this study applies a difference in differences approach to explore the evolution of gender inequalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing the differences in the numbers and shares of authorships, leadership in publications, gender composition of collaboration, and scientific impacts. We find that, during the pandemic: (1) females' leadership in publications as the first author was negatively affected; (2) although both females and males published more papers relative to the pre-pandemic period, the gender gaps in the share of authorships have been strengthened due to the larger increase in males' authorships; (3) the share of publications by mixed-gender collaboration declined; (4) papers by teams in which females Journal of informetrics101295https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9068670biostudies-literatureFurther divided gender gaps in research productivity and collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from coronavirus-related literature.PMC9068670Jaiswal ADing YBu YLiu MHu XZhang NChen HXu JfalseFurther divided gender gaps in research productivity and collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from coronavirus-related literature.Based on publication data on coronavirus-related fields, this study applies a difference in differences approach to explore the evolution of gender inequalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing the differences in the numbers and shares of authorships, leadership in publications, gender composition of collaboration, and scientific impacts. We find that, during the pandemic: (1) females' leadership in publications as the first author was negatively affected; (2) although both females and males published more papers relative to the pre-pandemic period, the gender gaps in the share of authorships have been strengthened due to the larger increase in males' authorships; (3) the share of publications by mixed-gender collaboration declined; (4) papers by teams in which females 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 May2025-04-19T09:18:36.026Z2025-02-19T01:23:56.381ZS-EPMC90686703552970510.1016/j.joi.2022.101295