G is for Genes —— The Impact of Genetics on Education and Achievement

----- 代表基因的G：遗传学对教育与成就的影响

ISBN: 9781118482810 出版年：2013 页码：211 Kathryn Asbury Robert Plomin Wiley

and restore health, and to advance scientific knowledge’. The latter was not mentioned in the previous editions, and I support this change in an era when it seems that we should justify any research activity with its practical, yet relevant, (clinical, economic, etc.) implications, whereas scientific knowledge in itself is often regarded as unimportant. I have a specific methodological interest in selection bias and generalizability issues, and I looked at these and related terms in the Dictionary. Selection bias is a complex and partly controversial term which has been updated in the new edition. For example, it now makes reference to the issue of generalizability and acknowledges that under some circumstances it is possible to address selection bias analytically via inverse probability weighting. Generalizability has been extended to mention its relationship with representativeness, acknowledging the distinction between descriptive studies and studies of aetiological nature. Transportability has been added as a new term, with no definition but a direct link to generalizability, and the concept of transportability is mentioned in the term validity, which in turn has been only slightly revised compared with the previous edition. I also work on internet-based research, which is why I looked for web-based or internet-based epidemiology in the Dictionary but without finding the terms. I am not sure whether these terms would necessarily have to be included in a dictionary, but we should consider anyway the process that led to the new edition. A large number of eminent epidemiologists contributed to the definition of at least one of the terms in the current and previous editions (and they are acknowledged as contributors), and John Last, Sander Greenland, Miguel Hernan and Isabel dos Santos Silva acted as associate editors. Furthermore, a call for contributions was launched and widely disseminated in 2012. Thus, if you do not find your favourite term in the Dictionary, do not complain and get prepared to contribute to the next edition.