Researchers and scientists who utilize genetic and genomic data should rethink and justify how and why they use race, ethnicity, and ancestry labels in their work, says a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report.

The report says researchers should not use race as a proxy for describing human genetic variation. Race is a social concept, but it is often used in genomics and genetics research as a surrogate for describing human genetic differences, which is misleading, inaccurate, and harmful. To improve genomics research, the report presents a new framework and decision tree to help researchers choose descriptors and labels that are most appropriate for their study.

From the beginning of genetics and genomics research, researchers have used “population descriptors” as a shorthand for capturing the complex patterns of human genetic variation across the globe. For example, these descriptors can identify groups based on nationality, such as French; geography, such as North American; or ethnicity, such as Hispanic. But human genetic differences are distributed in complex ways that do not necessarily align with a single descriptor.

Read the full news release and report on the NASEM website.