Endocrine Society Introduces Policies to Improve Sex-Difference Reporting

The Endocrine Society has instituted new policies to improve reporting of the sex of research subjects in its journals to enhance scientific insight into how hormone disorders affect men and women, according to a press release.

Under its new policies, authors submitting research to the Endocrine Society’s journals, including the Journal of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Hormones and Cancer, Molecular Endocrinology and Endocrinology, must disclose the sex of human and animal research subjects. When researchers are studying human cells, authors are required to specify sex of the cell lines.

Further, as part of the submission process, researchers will be asked if sex differences were evaluated as part of the analysis. These policies build on requirements implemented by Endocrinology in 2012.

The Endocrine Society also supports federal initiatives to balance the use of male and female cells and animals in preclinical research, especially when studying conditions that affect both sexes.

Recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invested an additional $10 million in supplemental funding in trials to address the gender gap in preclinical research and clinical trials.

“Science shows us that biological differences between men and women can affect how they respond to illnesses and treatments. With its new policies, the Endocrine Society is leading the way in encouraging scientists to more fully explore the implications of sex differences in health and biomedical research,” Endocrine Society President Richard J. Santen, MD, said in the release.

“We are pleased to see progress being made in this arena,” Santen said. “Sex is an important variable that needs to be considered in basic science as well as clinical research.”

The Endocrine Society publishes five peer-reviewed journals and access is available here.