Postdoctoral researchers are more likely to be able to access time on scientific equipment when their application process is made anonymous, according to research done at Australian facilities by John Carpenter and Isabelle Kingsley (University of New South Wales). An intervention showed how the introduction of a blind review—which shifts the focus from the scientist to the science and thus disrupts any “prestige bias”—affects who gets access to scientific equipment. At one facility, postdoctoral researchers received more time with the equipment, while application success rates for more experienced researchers dropped; at another, the time allotted to postdoctoral researchers stayed the same. Kingsley said that these results suggest that “anonymization can level the playing field” and support diversity in science.
