An experimental test of the effects of redacting grant applicant identifiers on peer review outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Blinding reviewers to applicant identity has been proposed to reduce bias in peer review. This experimental test used 1200 NIH grant applications, 400 from Black investigators, 400 matched applications from White investigators, and 400 randomly selected applications from White investigators. Applications were reviewed by mail in standard and redacted formats. Redaction reduced, but did not eliminate, reviewers' ability to correctly guess features of identity. The primary, preregistered analysis hypothesized a differential effect of redaction according to investigator race in the matched applications. A set of secondary analyses (not preregistered) used the randomly selected applications from White scientists and tested the same interaction. Both analyses revealed similar effects: Standard

SUBMITTER: Nakamura RK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8612703 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature