Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Among the many responsibilities that fall to editors, one of the most important is encouraging authors to make thoughtful and sensitive language choices. This includes using patient-first language (patients with diabetes, not diabetics); language respecting the age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and disability status of groups or individuals (when relevant); and language that avoids bias regarding race and ethnicity. In reports of scientific research, specifying the race and/or ethnicity of participants can provide information about the generalizability of the results of a specific study. Because many people may have mixed heritage, a racial or ethnic distinction should not be considered absolute, and preferably it should be based on a person’s self-designation. Ideally, researchers should be required to provide an explanation of who classified individuals’ race or ethnicity, the classifications used, and whether the classifications were defined by the investigator or the participant. In addition, the reasons that race or ethnicity information was collected in the study also should be described (e.g., in the Methods section).1 Updating the Language: Black and White The committee members responsible for the AMA Manual of Style received a number of queries earlier this year about the presentation of racial and ethnic terms, in particular (but not exclusive to) the manual’s style preference of the lowercase black. The 11th edition originally specified capitalizing racial and ethnic terms that derive from geographic nouns such as Asian, Alaska Native, and Latina, but the terms black and white were lowercased as racial designators (i.e., not derived from proper nouns). […]
Source: Science Editor
Author: Stacy Christiansen
Language: English
Topic: Race, Genetics, and Society
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3097273406