Newswise — WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 6, 2012) – Recognizing the abundance of sex and gender differences in scientific research, the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) continues to urge journals to report on these important differences. Recently, former SWHR Board member Dr. Virginia Miller has successfully advocated for the inclusion of sex differences in the 13 peer-reviewed journals of the American Physiology Society (APS).
Spurred by the 2012 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Sex-Specific Reporting of Scientific Research: A Workshop Summary, Miller, President of SWHR’s flagship program, the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD), called for other scientific journals to adopt similar policies. During the IOM discussions, experts in women’s health and editors of leading scientific and medical journals recommended requiring sex-specific reporting of scientific research so greater strides can be made in informing the public about sex differences in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevalence of disease.
“SWHR has encouraged scientific journals to report on sex differences data in research for the past decade,” said Phyllis Greenberger, MSW, President and CEO of SWHR. “The recent APS decision to report on these integral differences is both encouraging and representative of the last 20 years of SWHR’s advocacy efforts.”
OSSD’s Biology of Sex Differences, the first scientific journal to report exclusively on sex differences research, is now joined by other journals also reporting on sex and gender. Hopefully, this trend will continue and extend to all scientific journals.
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For more information on the Society for Women’s Health Research please contact Rachel Griffith at 202-496-5001 or [email protected].
The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR), a national non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., is widely recognized as the thought leader in women’s health research, particularly how sex differences impact health. SWHR’s mission is to improve the health of all women through advocacy, education and research. Visit SWHR’s website at swhr.org for more information.
The Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD) was launched in 2006 in partnership with the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) to promote scientific research on sex differences.
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