OUR PLEDGE

Our 5 Key Commitments that govern our
research and practice

01

Gender equity in leadership and representation

We commit to achieving and maintaining gender equity in our research teams, leadership positions, and participant recruitment. Embedded in this commitment is the willingness of all HER knee CRE and La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre team members to support each other in achieving gender equity.

  • Developing a gender equity workplace culture: We commit to providing training and awareness programs to help identify and mitigate implicit gender bias within our research teams and processes. We will provide this training to all incumbent and new staff, and will review this annually based on feedback and evaluation.
  • Ensuring gender equity in conference representation: We commit to actively tracking and improving gender balance among speakers, panellists, and presenters at conferences and events we organise or participate in. Our standard will be 50% representation of women within each of those groups.
  • Promotion of women in research leadership. We commit to intentional promotion of women to positions of leadership, particularly as lead and senior authors in projects and publications.
  • Prioritizing women's participation in research: We commit to intentionally implementing strategies to increase the proportion of women participants in our studies to better reflect the population and address the current under-representation. In all studies where women are part of the target population, we will aim for at least 50% representation
  • Monitoring and reporting of gender metrics: We commit to proactively tracking and transparently reporting gender diversity statistics in our research teams, authorship positions, and participant recruitment. This data-driven approach will help us identify areas for improvement and measure progress over time.

02

Inclusive study design and methodology

We pledge to design our studies with inclusivity in mind, considering intersectionality and the diverse needs of all potential participants. This includes using gender-inclusive language, identifying and addressing potential biases, and ensuring our research questions are relevant to a diverse population through consultation and collaboration.

03

Equitable data collection and analysis

We will identify and implement strategies to collect and analyse data that accurately represent diverse populations, including sex-disaggregated data and gender-based analyses where appropriate. We commit to transparently reporting these analyses. While maintaining gender equity as our main priority during data collection and analysis, we will also consider factors contributing to the marginalisation of other groups (e.g., race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status).

04

Prioritise patient and public involvement

We aim to actively engage patients and the public in all stages of our research, from developing research questions to disseminating results. This involvement will be documented and reported in all our publications.

05

Promote accessibility and knowledge translation

We commit to making our research findings accessible to all, using plain language summaries, infographics, podcasts and open-access publishing when possible. We will also actively work to translate our findings into practice, considering the diverse needs of different communities and healthcare settings.

We will commit to making resources/tools to help others make OUR PLEDGE a reality.

By adhering to these principles, we aim to conduct research that is not only scientifically rigorous but also equitable, inclusive, and impactful for all individuals.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about our pledge:
sallie.cowan@latrobe.edu.au