Single Blind vs. Double Blind

May 31st, 2011 by pcahn

Inside Higher Ed reports that the American Economics Association is switching its journals’ editorial process from double blind to single blind peer review. They make several arguments for the change:

  • In the age of search engines, reviewers can easily and accurately guess the identity of authors.
  • Making both reviewers and authors anonymous imposes administrative burdens on editors.
  • Knowing the author will allow reviewers to assess bias and potential conflicts of interest.

On the other side of the debate, a 2008 study found that when the journal Behavioral Ecology added double blind peer review, the number of female, first-authored papers increased.

When I first started reviewing double blind manuscripts, I would often look for clues to the author’s identity. It was partly from curiosity and partly so I could evaluate the submission in light of the scholar’s other work. More recently, when I review double blind articles, it’s not worth the effort to track down the author, so I make judgments based on the manuscript itself. I doubt that it has made any difference in my ultimate recommendations, but it does save time.

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Gender and Grants

May 27th, 2011 by pcahn

A comprehensive analysis of NIH funding for 2008 shows that success and funding rates differed little between female and male applicants. While this is good news, the study did reveal that almost all of the midcareer and senior investigator grants received significantly more male than female applicants.

Other results reflect a gap between male and female invetigators:

  • Women are less successful at receiving renewals of R01 awards.
  • 30% of investigators with only one R01 award are female, but only 13% of those who hold four or more R01s.
  • Women are more likely to perform human subjects research.

The overall message, however, is one of increasing parity. It is especially encouraging that women predominate in applications for some of the early career training grants. Still, it shouldn't take the turnover in generations to institute greater equality.

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Stereotype Threat

May 24th, 2011 by pcahn

Women make up 35 percent of all medical school faculty, but just 13% of department chairs and 13% of deans. The AAMC Reporter spoke to women leaders in academic medicine to get their take on the disparity.

One explanation, offered by Hannah Valantine of Stanford Medical School, is stereotype threat. Social psychology has shown that when minorities and women receive social cues that they are inferior in a subject, they perform less well. Something as simple as a reminder before a test that minority and female students tend to do just as well on the exam is sufficient to level the playing field.

Valantine is now exploring how to apply those lessons to faculty development. An NIH grant will allow her to develop positive triggers that she can show to a control group of women faculty in hopes of triggering their professional advancement.

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Collaborative Cheating

May 23rd, 2011 by pcahn

Students at New York's Upstate Medical University are required to complete a course in medical literature for graduation. When it emerged that 154 members of the graduating class cheated by working together on online quizzes, the school required the offenders to complete additional work before graduation.

While the students did seem to violate the school's code of ethics, their actions point to an important trend in medical education. Like elsewhere in health care, collaboration is increasingly vital for learning. It his how new discoveries are made and excellent health care is delivered. That so many students sought each other's help in completing the quizzes suggest that the old model of each person completing his or her work individually needs to be reexamined.

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UConn Expansion

May 19th, 2011 by pcahn

In a refreshing contrast to all the plans to cut public programs, the governor of Connecticut is proposing to expand the University of Connecticut Health Center. The plan would add 100 students to the medical school and construct a new patient building. Governor Malloy seems to have come up with a way to satisfy the short-term need to create jobs and the long-term goal of enhancing life science research and clinical care.

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Women in the National Academy

May 16th, 2011 by pcahn

Election to the National Academy of Sciences is one of the highest honors for a scientist. In the latest induction, only 9 of 72 new members were women. As women make up more of the Ph.D. recipients in the sciences, their representation in prestigious awards should also go up.

The Association for Women in Science has depicted a different trend. As this graph shows, the NAS is not keeping pace with the proportion of women scientists.

NAS

It's hopeful that women in engineering and applied sciences have reached parity, but gaps still exist in other fields. Part of the cause may be that only Academy members can nominate new members, thereby perpetuating a male dominance. Making the club more open might increase the diversity of its membership.

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Letting Go of Lectures

May 13th, 2011 by pcahn

The evidence against the effectiveness of lecturing for student learning is growing. A study published in Science describes the results of an experiment in a large introductory physics class at the University of British Columbia.

In week 12 of the semester, one section received traditional instruction from an experienced professor using lecture, PowerPoint, and clicker questions. Two inexperienced teachers trained in deliberative practice led another section using interactive exercises. The experimenters took care to establish ground rules for this learning contest. Both sets of instructors agreed on the learning objectives and a multiple choice quiz at the end of the week.

The results were not even close. The experimental group saw greater student engagement, attendance, and significantly higher scores on the post-test. The authors acknowledge that the intervention required significant outlay of time (20 hours of preparation for the first class), but gradually decreases over time. Moreover, students wished that the entire class were conducted using the interactive methods. The only barrier to change is inertia.

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NIH Budget

May 12th, 2011 by pcahn

The U.S. Senate's Committee on Appropriations held a hearing on the budget request for the NIH in 2012. In his testimony, NIH Director Francis Collins warned that a cut in the NIH budget would make it even harder for applicants to receive funding. About 1 in 5 grants in 2010 received support from the NIH. Without an increase in funding, the NIH would be forced to limit awards to just 1 in 6 grants.

It's encouraging to see the committee's proceedings outside of the bipartisan bickering. Senators of both parties seem genuinely respectful of Dr. Collins and the work of the NIH. Still, the NIH budget may be affected by a wave of cutting.

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A Revised MCAT

May 11th, 2011 by pcahn

In 2008, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the organization that administers the Medical College Admission Test, appointed an advisory board to recommend changes in the test. Although not scheduled to release their final report until 2012, the board has made some preliminary findings.

Past revisions to the test strengthened its ability to predict medical school grades, but it lacks a way to gauge the personal characteristics that make for a well-rounded physician. The board, which includes a Boston University MD/PhD student, suggests adding a new section on behavioral science to help students demonstrate knowledge of the social side of medicine. A revamped verbal section would emphasize ethics and cross-cultural competency.

The qualities of professionalism may be too ineffable to capture in a standardized test. Fortunately, the recommendations also call for expanding the qualitative elements of a medical school application. Taken together, the preliminary report suggests that preparing doctors is as much an art as it is a science.

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When Students Are Mothers

May 10th, 2011 by pcahn

Edward Feldman, chair of the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, has stepped down from his leadership role following an investigation of a classroom incident.

Earlier in the semester a student in his class informed him that she would have to miss a few weeks because she was giving birth. In response, Feldman asked his assistants to send a message to all the students in the class asking them to complete a poll about how he should determine the grade of their pregnant classmate.

Feldman admits his insensitivity and has accepted the demotion. Admittedly, he may have been unsure how to respond to the student's request, but rather than consulting his colleagues or administrators, he polled her peers. I wonder if he would have done the same if the absence had been for chemotherapy. It seems that pregnancy is treated differently. As long as women increasingly fill the ranks of students and faculty, universities will have to make accommodations for childbirth.

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