Representation in sea turtle science: Slow progress towards gender equity and globalization revealed from thirty years of symposium abstracts

Sea turtles are a circumglobal taxon that receive considerable research and conservation attention; however, there is little published information about patterns of representation for people working with these species. To assess long-term trends in gender, geographic, institutional within the sea turtle community, we quantified from 7041 abstracts presented at International Turtle Symposium (ISTS) between 1988–2018. We report several key findings. (1) The number authors per abstract doubled over study period, suggesting greater acknowledgment contributing individuals. (2) proportion female first last has increased time end period were slight majority (53%) even though remained predominantly (64%) male. (3) Most researchers North America (45%) but other continents time. (4) It was common (34%) Europe (42%) to conducted continents. This far less (<6%) Africa, Asia, Central Caribbean, South America. (5) (48%) affiliated academic institutions. Overall, our results reveal slow trend toward gender equity globalization community. Increasing opportunities underrepresented groups should therefore remain priority. facilitate this process, suggest hosting symposiums regions, providing grants individuals, developing present remotely via hybrid events, promoting senior researcher positions.