DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5x69p8dcv
title: Terminology in ecology and evolutionary biology disproportionately harms marginalized groups

description: The discipline of ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) has long grappled
 with issues of inclusivity and representation, particularly for
 individuals with systematically excluded and marginalized backgrounds or
 identities. For example, significant representation disparities still
 persist that disproportionately affect women and gender minorities; Black,
 Indigenous, and People of Color; individuals with disabilities; and people
 who are LGBTQIA+. Recent calls for action have urged the EEB community to
 directly address issues of representation, inclusion, justice, and equity.
 One aspect of this endeavor is to examine the use of EEB’s
 discipline-specific language and terminology, which may have the potential
 to perpetuate unjust systems and isolate marginalized groups. Through a
 mixed-methods survey, we examined how members of the EEB community
 perceive discipline-specific terminology, including how they believe it
 can be harmful and which terms they identified as problematic. Of the 795
 survey respondents, we found that almost half agreed that there are
 harmful terms in EEB, and that many individuals from marginalized groups
 responded that they have been harmed by such terminology. Most of the
 terms identified as harmful relate to race, ethnicity, and immigration;
 sex and gender; geopolitical hierarchies; and historical violence. Our
 findings suggest there is an urgent need for EEB to confront and
 critically reassess its discipline-specific terminology. By identifying
 harmful terms and their impacts, our study represents a crucial first step
 toward dismantling deeply rooted exclusionary structures in EEB. We
 encourage individuals, communities, and institutions to use these findings
 to reevaluate language used in disciplinary research, teaching and
 mentoring, manuscripts, and professional societies. Rectifying current
 harms in EEB will help promote a more just and inclusive discipline.
description: # Language Matters: Terminology in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
 Disproportionately Harms Marginalized Groups
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5x69p8dcv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5x69p8dcv) Please refer to the associated manuscript for detailed methods and data analysis. ## Description of the data and file structure The raw data underlying Figures 1A-1H, Figures 2A-2H, Figure 3, Figure S1, Figure S2, Figure S3, Figure S4, Figure S5, and Figure S6 are from survey questions with human subjects, which our ethics approval prevents us from sharing to secure the confidentiality of the respondents. We have shared aggregated data for the reproduction of figures to protect our participants' confidentiality. Additionally, because our ethics approval prevents us from sharing raw data derived from human subjects, we have created simulated data to accompany the code used for the multinomial logistic regressions. The code remains the same as in the original analysis, but the output from these models will differ from the results presented in the manuscript given the data provided are simulated. The data files for Figures 1A-1H and Figures 2A-2H have the following columns: * **response**: Represents the response selected by the participant in response to one of two Likert Scale questions. For Figure 1, participants responded to the following question: “I think there is terminology in ecology and evolutionary biology that perpetuates negative stereotypes or impacts individuals or groups negatively.” For Figure 2, participants responded to the following question: “I have been harmed or offended by terminology used in ecology and evolutionary biology.” For both Likert scale questions, response options included "Agree," "Disagree," or "Not sure." * **demographic**: Indicates the demographic category of the respondents. For details on how demographic categories were assigned, please refer to manuscript associated with this data set. * **count**: The number of responses within each demographic category. * **sum**: The total number of responses considered for that demographic group. * **perc**: The percentage of the count within the total responses for that demographic category. Due to confidentiality concerns and IRB regulations on sharing human subjects data, simulated data were generated and used in place of the original survey data. The code remains the same as in the original analysis, but the output from these models will differ from the results presented in the manuscript. The simulated data files have the following columns: * **demographic (column title varies by csv file):** Indicates the demographic category of the respondents. For details on how demographic categories were assigned, please refer to manuscript associated with this data set. * **response:** Represents the response selected by the participant in response to one of two Likert Scale questions. For Figure 1, participants responded to the following question: “I think there is terminology in ecology and evolutionary biology that perpetuates negative stereotypes or impacts individuals or groups negatively.” For Figure 2, participants responded to the following question: “I have been harmed or offended by terminology used in ecology and evolutionary biology.” For both Likert scale questions, response options included "Agree," "Disagree," or "Not sure." The data file for Figure 3 has the following columns: * **theme**: The themes under which specific terms mentioned by participants are grouped. Each row represents a unique theme. For details on how themes were assigned, please refer to manuscript associated with this data set. * **n**: Indicates the number of participants who mentioned terms associated with each theme. * **perc**: The proportion of participants (as a percentage) who mentioned terms within each theme, calculated relative to the total number of participants. The data files for Figures S1-S6 have the following columns: * **demographic:** Indicates the demographic category of the respondents. For details on how demographic categories were assigned, please refer to manuscript associated with this data set. * **response:** Represents the response selected by the participant in response to one of two Likert Scale questions. For Figures S1-S3, participants responded to the following question: “I think there is terminology in ecology and evolutionary biology that perpetuates negative stereotypes or impacts individuals or groups negatively.” For Figures S4-S6, participants responded to the following question: “I have been harmed or offended by terminology used in ecology and evolutionary biology.” For both Likert scale questions, response options included "Agree," "Disagree," or "Not sure." * **perc:** The percentage representation of the count within the total responses for that demographic category. * **n:** The number of responses within each demographic category. The data files for the multinomial logistic regressions for the data presented in Figure 1 and Figure 2 have the following columns: ## Code/Software This repository contains the R code used for data analysis and visualization in our study on demographic variations in perceptions of terminology in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB). There are three R scripts used for data analysis: (1) the “Likert scale questions - figures”, “Term analysis - figures, and (3) "Likert scale questions - analysis."  For all analyses, R version 4.2.2 was used. **Likert scale questions - figures - Structure of the Code:** 1. **Data Loading**: Data for each figure was loaded from separate CSV files containing distinct demographic breakdowns and responses. Each subset of the data pertains to a specific figure in the manuscript, from main figures (Figure 1 and Figure 2) to supplemental figures (Figures S1-S6). 2. **Figures**: Each figure was created using ggplot2 to create bar plots with stacked responses. **Term analysis - figures - Structure of the Code:** 1. **Data Loading**: The dataset for Figure 3 was loaded from a CSV file, which includes each term categorized by theme along with the percentage of participants mentioning each term that was classified in that particular theme. 2. **Figures**: Figure 3 was created using ggplot2 to create bar plots. **Likert scale questions - analysis - Structure of the Code:** Due to confidentiality concerns and IRB regulations on sharing human subjects data, simulated data were generated and used in place of the original survey data. The code remains the same as in the original analysis, but the output from these models will differ from the results presented in the manuscript. * **Data Loading:** The datasets for the Likert scale analysis were loaded from CSV files, each corresponding to different demographic breakdowns for responses to two Likert scale questions. The data were organized by demographic group and response category. * **Statistical Analysis:** The code conducts multinomial logistic regression analyses to explore relationships between demographic groups and their responses. These analyses assess whether demographic characteristics are associated with differing perceptions of harmful terminology in ecology and evolutionary biology.