Burnett N P, Combes S A
Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Integr Org Biol. 2019 Oct 25;1(1):obz027. doi: 10.1093/iob/obz027. eCollection 2019.
Post-doctoral training is a critical career stage for researchers in the life sciences, yet interviewing for a post-doctoral position is largely an unregulated process. Without regulation, interviews are susceptible to unconscious biases that may lead to discrimination against certain demographic groups (e.g., women and minorities). Using data from an online survey of post-docs, we show that interview procedures for post-doctoral positions in the life sciences are correlated with several factors (e.g., candidate demographics) in ways that may bias the outcome of interviews. We discuss key components of interviews and suggest that conducting standardized, well-planned interviews that are less susceptible to unconscious biases may help increase the retention of women and under-represented minorities in the life sciences.
博士后培训是生命科学领域研究人员职业生涯中的关键阶段，然而博士后职位的面试在很大程度上是一个缺乏规范的过程。由于缺乏规范，面试容易受到无意识偏见的影响，这可能导致对某些特定人口群体（如女性和少数族裔）的歧视。通过对博士后在线调查的数据进行分析，我们发现生命科学领域博士后职位的面试程序与若干因素（如候选人的人口统计学特征）相关，这些因素可能会使面试结果产生偏差。我们讨论了面试的关键组成部分，并建议进行标准化、精心策划的面试，以减少无意识偏见的影响，这可能有助于提高生命科学领域女性和代表性不足的少数族裔的留用率。
