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Abstract

Who conducts biological research, where they do it and how results are disseminated vary among geographies and identities.Identifying and documenting these forms of bias by research communities is a critical step towards addressing them. Wedocumented perceived and observed biases in movement ecology, a rapidly expanding sub-discipline of biology, whichis strongly underpinned by fieldwork and technology use. We surveyed attendees before an international conference toassess a baseline within-discipline perceived bias (uninformed perceived bias). We analysed geographic patterns in MovementEcology articles, finding discrepancies between the country of the authors’ affiliation and study site location, related tonational economics. We analysed race-gender identities of USA biology researchers (the closest to our sub-discipline withdata available), finding that they differed from national demographics. Finally, we discussed the quantitatively observedbias at the conference, to assess within-discipline perceived bias informed with observational data (informed perceived bias).Although the survey indicated most conference participants as bias-aware, conversations only covered a subset of biases.We discuss potential causes of bias (parachute-science, fieldwork accessibility), solutions and the need to evaluate mitigatoryaction effectiveness. Undertaking data-driven analysis of bias within sub-disciplines can help identify specific barriers andmove towards the inclusion of a greater diversity of participants in the scientific process.

Published in

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
2025, volume: 292, number: 2051, article number: 20250679

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Sociology (excluding Social work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Ecology
Ethnology

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.0679

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143073