Women in science and medicine [correspondence]

Your Editorial “Promoting women in science and medicine” (Nov 20, p 1712)1 is timely. The genSET science leaders panel2 analysed gender and sex bias in basic research and found that medical treatments for women are less evidence-based than for men. Pain research demonstrates this point well: 79% of animal studies published in the journal Pain over the past 10 years included males only, with a mere 8% of studies on females only, and another 4% explicitly designed to test for sex differences (the rest did not specify).3 Editors of peer-reviewed journals can require analysis of sex and gender effects when selecting papers for publication. The US Journal of the National Cancer Institute does it as a matter of “commitment to sound, scientific research”: “where appropriate, clinical and epidemiological studies should be analysed to see if there is an effect of sex or any of the major ethnic groups. If there is no effect, it should be so stated in Results”.4 The Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation (the American Heart Association journal), also adopted this practice. Nature journals are at present considering whether to require the inclusion of such information.5 Could The Lancet adopt such guidelines as part of its gender equality and scientific quality policy?