Stephen M Small, Regis A Lucia, Pamela D Reiter
Pharmacy DEI publication rates grew between 2000 and 2024. Although federal funding was noted in less than one-fourth of publications, the new funding ban coupled with the threat of backlash, criticism, and possible termination are expected to have a greater detrimental effect on future publication rates and DEI scholarship. The current work may serve as a comparator to measure the before-and-after impacts of these US policy changes.
BACKGROUND: Healthcare and social disparities contribute to poor outcomes in underserved and marginalized groups. Recent federal policy changes in 2025 have deemed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices to be illegal. Research describing trends in DEI scholarship and literature within the pharmacy discipline is lacking.
OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this descriptive, cross-sectional bibliometric analysis was to measure pharmacy publication trends in DEI between 2000 and 2024, before presidential executive orders banned DEI. Secondary objectives included authorship, funding relationships, and document theme analysis.
METHODS: The Web of Science and Scopus databases identified DEI-related pharmacy documents published in the US during the study period. Articles were included if they contained DEI topics and were within the pharmacy and pharmacology subject area. Bibliometrix software generated publication-related metrics and network visualizations for document themes. Descriptive statistics summarized document types, citations, authors, keywords, and funding.
RESULTS: A total of 248 documents met inclusion criteria. Most publications were defined as articles (53.2%) followed by reviews (21%). There was a 20.1% annual growth rate in pharmacy DEI literature during the study period. There were 1,338 distinct authors with a median of 4 authors per document. Southern states had the most corresponding authors (44.7%). Common themes focused on demographic populations, health equity, and pharmacy education. Federal funding was reported in 16.7% of documents published between 2000 and 2020 and 20.6% between 2021 and 2024.
CONCLUSION: Pharmacy DEI publication rates grew between 2000 and 2024. Although federal funding was noted in less than one-fourth of publications, the new funding ban coupled with the threat of backlash, criticism, and possible termination are expected to have a greater detrimental effect on future publication rates and DEI scholarship. The current work may serve as a comparator to measure the before-and-after impacts of these US policy changes.