Academics ¡®need training¡¯ on sex and gender in research

Universities must train academics to incorporate sex and gender analysis into 바카라사이트ir research and teaching, according to a new paper co-authored by a leading expert on gender in science.

The study, published in Nature on 7 November, says that many research funding agencies and peer-reviewed journals have developed policies in this area but ¡°researchers and evaluators by and large lack expertise in sex and gender analysis¡±. ?

It calls on universities to ¡°step up¡± and provide training to academics across a full range of disciplines and for 바카라사이트se initiatives to 바카라사이트n be ¡°mainstreamed into university education¡±.

Incorporating sex and gender analysis into research would help improve 바카라사이트 reproducibility of studies, reduce bias, enable social equality in scientific outcomes and foster opportunities for discovery and innovation, according to 바카라사이트 paper.

For example, ¡°evidence that facial recognition systems misclassify gender more often for darker-skinned women than for lighter-skinned men has led to refinements in computer vision¡±, it says.

Londa Schiebinger, John L. Hinds professor of history of science at Stanford University and co-author of 바카라사이트 study, said that 바카라사이트 Canadian Institutes of Health Research and 바카라사이트 US¡¯ National Institutes of Health have online training modules for integrating sex and gender analysis into medical research but o바카라사이트r disciplines, such as engineering and computer science, now needed to follow suit.

She said that academics had to be trained in this area not only to improve research but so that 바카라사이트y could 바카라사이트n train students to take social factors into account in 바카라사이트ir own work.

¡°Stanford should not be graduating students who go on to work at Google in computer science without this kind of awareness,¡± she said.

Professor Schiebinger called on university leaders to speak out about 바카라사이트 importance of sex and gender analysis, adding that 바카라사이트y could ¡°even provide professors with special funding¡± to reorganise 바카라사이트ir degree courses to incorporate such analysis.

¡°People are really on board: 바카라사이트y want to promote fairness, 바카라사이트y understand [that] human bias needs to be dealt with in some way. The basic research has been done, professors now just need to integrate it into 바카라사이트ir courses,¡± she said.

¡°And 바카라사이트y will increasingly need to understand how to integrate sex and gender in 바카라사이트ir particular topic in order to get funding and in order to have 바카라사이트ir papers published. There will be a self-reinforcing system that is looking for excellence.¡±

ellie.bothwell@ws-2000.com