Sex and gender analyses in the design of research studies

[Imnobody4]

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03459-y

At the end of last month, the European Commission announced that its grant recipients will be required to incorporate sex and gender analyses into the design of research studies. The policy will affect researchers applying for grants that are part of the commission’s seven-year, 85-billion (US$100-billion) Horizon Europe programme, which is due to begin next year.

The funding is still awaiting sign-off from the European Union’s 27 member states. But if all goes to plan, the commission will be the largest funder to require sex and gender analyses — along with analyses of other aspects of inclusion and how they interact, or intersect, also known as intersectionality — in research design. Such analyses could include disaggregating data by sex when examining cells, or considering how a technology might perpetuate gender stereotypes.

It’s a significant achievement. Science will be strengthened by researchers incorporating analyses of sex and gender into their work at every stage — from study design to gathering data, analysing those data and drawingconclusions.

This is good news but the thorny problem of gender isn't addressed. We really need an agreed definition in science as well as law. A recognition that gender is a social concept coming from outside the individual not an individual personal identity.

Thank you so much for posting this, @Imnobody4. It has already proved very useful for an ongoing issue about data collection in the team I work in.

Well, good luck with that.

Please forgive my default weariness - it's just that years after SAGER guidelines were introduced and many journals signed up to them, take a guess as to how many journals include them in their instructions to authors or referees.

Take a guess as to how many times authors or editors review the paper to include the requisite analysis when I mention it as part of a review.

Sex and gender differences are often overlooked in research design, study implementation and scientific reporting, as well as in general science communication. This oversight limits the generalizability of research findings and their applicability to clinical practice, in particular for women but also for men. This article describes the rationale for an international set of guidelines to encourage a more systematic approach to the reporting of sex and gender in research across disciplines.

researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6