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We probably do not know the full extent of the harm we may be causing because thereporting of results by gender is so inconsistently performed in medical and surgical trials in our specialty. This must change. Accordingly, we recommend that investigators writing for CORR1 :
• Design studies that are sufficiently powered to answer research questions both for males and females (or men and women) if the health condition being studied occurs in both sexes/genders.
• Provide sex- and/or gender-specific data where relevant in all clinical, basic science, and epidemiological studies.
• Analyze the influence (or association) of sex or gender on the results of the study, or indicate in the Patients and Methods section why such analyses were not performed, and consider this topic as a limitation to cover in the Discussion section. Readers need to know whether the results generalize to both sexes/genders.
• Indicate (if sex or gender analyses were performed post-hoc) that these analyses should be interpreted cautiously because they may be underpowered (leading to a false conclusion of no difference). If there are many such analyses, indicate that they may lead to spurious significance, and an erroneous conclusion of a sex- or gender-related difference.
We present these as recommendations, rather than requirements for publication because the topic is relatively new to the collective consciousness of our specialty. Our editorial board will continue to evaluate whether and when guidelines like these should become requirements. For now, we will consider the scientific reporting of sex- and gender-related findings an important element of the papers we consider for publication.