Exploring Concepts of Population in Human Genetic Variation Studies

该项目由科学与社会计划的科学，工程和技术组成部分的伦理和价值观研究资助，将记录和分析人类遗传变异研究人员实施“人类人口”概念的实践。这项研究还将描绘出目前指定和操作“人口”的做法的各种实际和道德影响。“它将在研究人员研究人类遗传变异的领先实验室中采用人种学实地观察和访谈。该研究还将借鉴参与者在科学会议上的观察以及对主要科学文献、政府报告和指南的分析。 人类遗传学研究采用了对这些项目至关重要的“群体”概念。然而，人口的概念往往没有明确的定义，在项目之间或项目内部也没有标准化。此外，不可能具体说明不相互重叠的人口概念。拟议的项目将调查人口和人口变化是如何构思和构建的。更具体地说，本研究将探讨在设计，数据收集和分析过程中的基本人类遗传变异研究的概念和操作的人口。 该项目有两个主要目标：创造关于科学家如何选择和制定分类方案的新知识，以及不同的人口概念如何影响人类遗传变异研究项目的设计、数据收集和分析;创造关于科学研究的社会、伦理、政治经济和体制方面的新知识，将人口概念纳入其研究。 这项调查将导致期刊文章和一本书，并将有助于人类遗传变异以及生物伦理学，遗传学的社会研究，科学政策，统计和联系方法的文献。它还将增加关于特定研究领域的文献，包括科学标准化，科学分类和类别，科学价值观的影响，知识生产的实践，科学工作组织的形式和影响，特别是科学的跨学科合作。研究结果将在学术和政策性会议上向研究人员以及对新遗传技术的社会和伦理问题感兴趣的公众团体散发。 它还将描述不同研究人员使用的统计程序之间的差异和相似之处，并分析研究人员如何将人口概念作为研究变量。

This project, funded by the Ethics and Values Studies in Science, Engineering and Technology component of the Science and Society Program, will document and analyze the practices through which human genetic variation researchers operationalize the concept of "a human population." The study will also map the various practical and ethical implications of current practices for designating and operationalizing "population." It will employ ethnographic field observations and interviews in leading laboratories where researchers study human genetic variation. The study will also draw on participant observation at scientific conferences and an analysis of primary scientific literature and government reports and guidelines. Human genetics research employs notions of "population" which are critical to these projects. However, notions of human populations are often not clearly defined, nor are they standardized across or within projects. Further, it is impossible to specify notions of human populations that do not overlap with one another. The proposed project will investigate how populations and population variations are conceived and constructed. More specifically, this research will examine the conceptualization and operationalization of the notion of population inthe design, data collection, and analysis processes of basic human genetic variation research studies. The project has two primary aims: to create new knowledge about how scientists choose and institute categorization schemes and about how different concepts of population influence the design, data collection, and analysis of human genetic variation research projects; and, to create new knowledge about the social, ethical, political-economic, and institutional dimensions of scientific research that incorporate concepts of population in their studies. This investigation will result in journal articles and a book, and will contribute to the literature on human genetic variation as well as on bioethics, social studies of genetics, science policy, and statistical and linkage methods. It will also add to the literature on specific fields of research including standardization in science, scientific classification and categories, the effects of values in science, the practices of knowledge production, the shape and effect of scientific work organization and especially interdisciplinary collaboration in science. The study's findings will be disseminated to researchers at academic and policy-oriented conferences as well as to public groups interested in social and ethical issues related to new genetic technologies. It will also provide a description of differences and similarities between the statistical procedures used by different researchers together with an analysis of how researchers incorporate the concept of population as a research variable.