The male default prevails in biomedical research: sex inclusion in Nature (2025).

Authors

Ashlyn Swift-Gallant, Liisa A M Galea, Lindsay S Cahill

Published in

Biology of sex differences. Jul 06, 2026. Epub Jul 06, 2026.

Abstract

Despite longstanding recognition of sex as a biological variable, its integration into biomedical research remains inconsistent. Numerous publishers have introduced policies to improve reporting and inclusion of sex and gender, including Nature, which requires authors to complete a Life Science Reporting Summary documenting sex inclusion. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of these policies by examining sex inclusion and reporting practices in all original research articles involving humans, vertebrates, or cell lines published in Nature in 2025 (N = 513). Nearly two-thirds of articles included both sexes (62.7%); however, inclusion was often nominal. Of these articles reporting inclusion of both sexes, 33% did not maintain inclusion across experiments, used markedly unbalanced sex ratios (≥ 2:1), or alternated between male- and female-only experiments. Another 45.5% of these articles reporting inclusion of both sexes did not report sample size by sex, so it cannot be ascertained whether sex inclusion was maintained across experiments or balanced by sex. Single-sex studies accounted for approximately one-fifth of articles. While male-only and female-only studies occurred at similar overall rates, male-only studies were more than four times more likely to address conditions affecting both sexes while female-only studies were more likely to address sex-specific conditions (e.g., ovarian cancer). Notably, the policies aimed at improving reporting and inclusion also did not increase analysis by sex; only 7% of articles explicitly analyzed sex as a discovery variable for at least some analyses. These findings suggest that transparency-focused reporting summaries alone are insufficient to ensure sex inclusion and/or meaningful analytical integration of sex (i.e., direct comparison of sexes, rather than using sex as a covariate). As a leading biomedical journal, Nature plays a central role in shaping research norms; without stronger editorial expectations, reporting requirements risk reinforcing male-default assumptions rather than advancing rigor and generalizability.

PMID:
42410669
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Jul 2026.

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