NIH finds using anonymous proposals to test for bias is harder than it looks

Noted; “I don’t think anonymization will work, but it’s the first thing that people think of,” says Molly Carnes, a professor of geriatrics and director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Carnes leads a team that has poked at the dynamics of peer review by recreating study sections. Among their findings is that ambiguous standards for reviewing grant proposals and comments from other reviewers can influence the panel’s assessment of the proposed research. Those variations could also lead to bias, she says, although the group has not specifically examined racial factors.