Compared to scientists working in other countries, U.S.-based
scientists are underrepresented as authors of articles on the
potential role of innate variation in athletic performance that are
published in peer-reviewed science journals, according to Grand Valley
State University researchers.
The findings are published in the online journal SpringerPlus http://www.springerplus.com/content/3/1/307.
The research, conducted by Michael P. Lombardo, professor of
biology, and Shadie Emiah, a Grand Valley State graduate student, used
information about the authors of 290 articles published in
peer-reviewed science journals between 2000 and 2012 and compared the
proportions of authors with U.S. addresses with those that listed
addresses elsewhere that studied the relationships between athletic
performance and prenatal exposure to androgens, as indicated by the
ratio between the length of the forefinger and ring-finger, and
genetic variation in genes for angiotensin converting enzyme,
α-actinin-3, and myostatin, traits that are often associated with
athletic performance.
The main result was that authors with U.S. addresses were
disproportionately underrepresented on papers about the role of innate
variation in these traits and athletic performance. The authors also
searched NIH and NSF databases for grant proposals solicited or funded
from 2000-2012 to determine if the proportion of authors that listed
U.S. addresses was associated with funding patterns. NIH did not
solicit grant proposals designed to examine these factors in the
context of athletic performance and neither NIH nor NSF funded grants
designed to directly study these topics.
Lombardo and Emiah attribute the underrepresentation to the
combined effects of a lack of government funding and the fact that
historical events have produced an ideologically charged atmosphere in
the U.S. surrounding the potential influences of innate variation on
performance which has led to U.S.-based scientists avoiding studying
this controversial topic.
Lombardo said: “Regardless of the ultimate reasons why
U.S.-based scientists don’t often publish articles about the potential
role of innate variation on athletic performance, they are failing to
maintain pace with their colleagues elsewhere in the illumination of
the factors that influence athletic performance because they fail to
study possible innate correlates of performance. As a consequence, not
only will the scientific study of sport by U.S.-based scientists
suffer, but so will the scientific study of the biological and
environmental correlates of physical activity, fitness and general health.”
For more information, contact Michael Lombardo at
[email protected]
U.S. scientists dont publish articles about the potential role of innate variation in athletic performance
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