Leading journal Nature will make sex and gender reporting mandatory in research

Phys.org  May 27, 2022
According to Nature journals’ new policy, starting in June, researchers who submit papers to a subset of the Nature Portfolio journals https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/ethics-and-biosecurity will need to describe whether, and how, sex and gender are considered in study design. If no sex and gender analyses were carried out, authors will need to clarify why. This will apply to work with human participants, as well as other vertebrate animals and cell experimental studies. “Sex” and “gender” are terms that are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Sex refers to biological attributes, including genetics and reproductive organs. Gender is shaped by social and cultural influences and may or may not align with an individual’s biological sex. Authors writing for Nature journals will also need to present “data disaggregated by sex and gender” where relevant. This is a necessary move towards unraveling differences between males and females. Researchers are encouraged to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research guidelines when designing research studies…read more.