SynthesisIntegrative and comparative biology2023
Multivariate Models of Animal Sex: Breaking Binaries Leads to a Better Understanding of Ecology and Evolution.
Synthesis in Integrative and comparative biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Of Monsters and Monkeys: Queering the Study of Genetic Chimerism in Primates.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- The lived experience of trans persons: a bottom-up review co-written by experts by experience and academics.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026Article
- LGBTQ+ Realities in the Biological Sciences.CBE life sciences education · 2026Article
- Claims of sex-dependent effects in the behavioral and brain sciences are infrequently supported by valid statistical comparisons.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The epistemic importance of ethical neutrality in science.Bioscience · 2026Review
- Biological Sex Is Binary and Rooted in Anisogamy.Ecology letters · 2026Review
- Deconstructing Biological Sex by Fuzzifying Osteological Sex: Implications for Theoretically Informed Practice.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Inclusive Biology Curriculum Interventions can Reduce High School Students' Bioessentialist Beliefs.CBE life sciences education · 2026Article
- Inferring sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) sex and developmental stage using aerial photogrammetry.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Where We Go From Here: Harnessing Queer Perspectives to Advance Practice in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- There is No Consensus on Biological Sex.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- The "sex-specific effect:" Evaluating analytical approaches to sex-dependence in the behavioral and brain sciences.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Navigating the Semantic Labyrinth of "Sex" in the Study of Reproductive Trait Evolution.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Evolution, Development, and the Incoherence of Sex: A Framework for Multiple Sex Concepts.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Hermaphrodite, Gonochorist, and More: Navigating the Complexities of Sex-Related Language in Biology.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Synthesizing Sex/es Across Scales and Lineages: Centering Plants, Algae, Fungi, Protists, and Modular Metazoans.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Teaching Accurate Sex-related Biology: Approaches for More Socially Just Instruction.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Centering Biodiversity: Integrating the Complexity of Sex Into a Developmental Biology Course.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Sexes Are Polymorphisms: Describing and Understanding Sexual Diversity as Phenotypic Variation.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Reframing the sex debate in scientific research: three frameworks to support rigor without rigidity.Biology of sex differences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
"Sex" is often used to describe a suite of phenotypic and genotypic traits of an organism related to reproduction. However, these traits-gamete type, chromosomal inheritance, physiology, morphology, behavior, etc.-are not necessarily coupled, and the rhetorical collapse of variation into a single term elides much of the complexity inherent in sexual phenotypes. We argue that consideration of "sex" as a constructed category operating at multiple biological levels opens up new avenues for inquiry in our study of biological variation. We apply this framework to three case studies that illustrate the diversity of sex variation, from decoupling sexual phenotypes to the evolutionary and ecological consequences of intrasexual polymorphisms. We argue that instead of assuming binary sex in these systems, some may be better categorized as multivariate and nonbinary. Finally, we conduct a meta-analysis of terms used to describe diversity in sexual phenotypes in the scientific literature to highlight how a multivariate model of sex can clarify, rather than cloud, studies of sexual diversity within and across species. We argue that such an expanded framework of "sex" better equips us to understand evolutionary processes, and that as biologists, it is incumbent upon us to push back against misunderstandings of the biology of sexual phenotypes that enact harm on marginalized communities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.