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A report conducted by Elsevier

Equality is part of quality in science. Making full use of the potential of both women and men maximizes the quantity and, more importantly, quality of research. Despite the policies and regulations implemented by the European Commission and within individual countries, there are prominent gaps between women and men in terms of the number of scientific researchers, decision-making positions held, and other aspects of career development such as informal networks of collaboration and access to funding.

This report provides evidence and analysis on potential gender gaps in research in Germany by linking data from Scopus®to data from a large online social networking service to identify the gender of German researchers in Scopus®author profiles.

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The European Union (EU), a pioneer in gender equality policies, is moving from predominantly attending to gender inequality, towards policies that address multiple inequalities. This article argues that there are tendencies at EU level to assume an unquestioned similarity of inequalities, to fail to address the structural level and to fuel the political competition between inequalities. Based upon a comparison of specific sets of inequalities (class, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender), this article explores where and how structural and political intersectionality might be relevant. It argues that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to addressing multiple discrimination is based on an incorrect assumption of sameness or equivalence of the social categories connected to inequalities and of the mechanisms and processes that constitute them. Focusing on similarities ignores the differentiated character and dynamics of inequalities. It also overlooks the political dimension of equality goals. Moreover, it has become clear that attention to structural mechanisms and to the role of the state and the private sphere in reproducing inequalities is much needed. The final part of the article presents constructive ideas for a more comprehensive way of addressing multiple inequalities.

2015 is a key year for sustainable development.  Sustainability as a scientific endeavor requires broad  understanding of the interconnections in our global  environment. It is not surprising then, that, several  development initiatives and large-scale, multi-stakeholder  events are taking place to discuss international  developments goals. The United Nations (UN) will adopt  the post-2015 sustainable development agenda with  the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN  headquarters in New York this September, following on from  the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In addition,  international climate negotiations at the Conference of the  Parties (COP21) will take place in Paris in November, where  international agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas  emissions will be sought. Science, technology and innovation have long been  recognized as the basis for socioeconomic development.  They are also core contributors to sustainable development  and to meeting the SDGs. The UN has called for a “seat  for science” on the High-Level Political Forum that deals  with the UN’s sustainable development agenda, to ensure  that “science is not just an observer but an advisor to  policymakers.” " 1  This report is part of a broader, on-going  effort to provide more evidence and analysis on the role of  science, technology and innovation in the global agenda of  sustainable development. This report examines the status of sustainability science  as a research field. Throughout the report, we view  “sustainable development” as a term that covers the  research, programs and collaborative efforts that contribute  to sustainable development, and “sustainability science”  as the research that supports and drives sustainable  development. Examination of the corpus of sustainability  science may provide indicators of society’s progress  towards the goal of sustainable development itself. The report focuses on three topics:

→ Research output and citation impact: How many  publications are produced in sustainability science?  How fast does the research output grow? Are the  publications impactful, as indicated by field-weighted  citation impact (FWCI)?  

→ Research collaboration: To what extent is the research  in sustainability science internationally collaborative?  Do developed and developing countries partner on the  research in this field? To what extent is the corporate  sector involved?

→ Interdisciplinary research (IDR): What percentage  of the research output in sustainability science  is interdisciplinary? Which topics are the most  interdisciplinary?

Controlling the sex ratio is essential in finfish farming. A balanced sex ratio is usually good for broodstock management, since it enables to develop appropriate breeding schemes. However, in some species the production of monosex populations is desirable because the existence of sexual dimorphism, primarily in growth or first time of sexual maturation, but also in color or shape, can render one sex more valuable. The knowledge of the genetic architecture of sex determination (SD) is convenient for controlling sex ratio and for the implementation of breeding programs. Unlike mammals and birds, which show highly conserved master genes that control a conserved genetic network responsible for gonad differentiation (GD), a huge diversity of SD mechanisms has been reported in fish. Despite theory predictions, more than one gene is in many cases involved in fish SD and genetic differences have been observed in the GD network. Environmental factors also play a relevant role and epigenetic mechanisms are becoming increasingly recognized for the establishment and maintenance of the GD pathways. Although major genetic factors are frequently involved in fish SD, these observations strongly suggest that SD in this group resembles a complex trait. Accordingly, the application of quantitative genetics combined with genomic tools is desirable to address its study and in fact, when applied, it has frequently demonstrated a multigene trait interacting with environmental factors in model and cultured fish species. This scenario has notable implications for aquaculture and, depending upon the species, from chromosome manipulation or environmental control techniques up to classical selection or marker assisted selection programs, are being applied. In this review, we selected four relevant species or fish groups to illustrate this diversity and hence the technologies that can be used by the industry for the control of sex ratio: turbot and European sea bass, two reference species of the European aquaculture, and salmonids and tilapia, representing the fish for which there are well established breeding programs.