US science must take anti-bias measures or risk imperiling the research enterprise, the report finds.Credit: Getty
Universities and other employers in the US science sector must adopt practices that foster a safe and inclusive community, finds a report1 from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), which outlines how such institutions can do so. The report calls for systemic change across multiple levels to account for the lengthy history of discrimination against people of colour and members of marginalized communities in the United States.
Susan Fiske, co-chair of the committee behind the report, says that bias and discrimination in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) is structural1 in the United States. This culture, she says, results in policies that reinforce each other and attitudes that perpetuate lifelong disadvantages for certain groups. “The converging data from surveys and experiments and observations tells us that you