CORRESPONDENCE 10. Royal College of Physicians. Retention of Medical 12. Medical Research Council. Human Tissue and 14. Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Human Tissue: Ethical Records—with Particular Reference to Medical Biological Samples for Use in Research: Operational and Legal Issues. (Nuffield Council Publications, Genetics 2nd edn. (Royal College of Physicians and Ethical Guidelines. (Medical Research Council London, 1995). Publications, London, 1998). Publications, London, 2001). 15. Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Ethics 11. Medical Research Council. Personal Information in 13. Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Genetic Screening: Committee. Statement on the Principled Conduct of Medical Research. (Medical Research Council Ethical Issues. (Nuffield Council Publications, Genetics Research. (HUGO International, London, Publications, London, 2000). London, 1993). 1996). MEDLINE definitions of race and ethnicity and their application to genetic research To the editor MeSH defines ethnic group as “a group of ‘Hamitic-Semitic’ subjects are referred to in Over the last five years, the use of MEDLINE people with a common cultural heritage that two articles8,9. From the Negroid racial stock has increased more than ten-fold, attesting to sets them apart from others in a variety of definition, ‘Hottentots’ returns a handful of the importance of the database in the social relationships.” MeSH lists 13 such articles, mostly historical. ‘Negrillos’ and scientific community (see http://www.nlm. groups, drawn primarily from United States ‘Half-Hamites’ each return the message that nih.gov/bsd/medline_growth_508.html). populations. Ethnic group definitions range MEDLINE is “[u]nable to map your term to MEDLINE must organize thousands of from one phrase to several sentences. The a subject heading.” topics into an indexing system that strikes a characteristics listed include, in order of MeSH should conform with standard balance between chronological consistency frequency cited, geographic location (nine), language and abandon nineteenth century http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics and current interests. It is an invaluable racial classification (six), ancestry (three) and colonialist terms, such as Hottentots, resource to scientific research. But race- and history (two). Three characteristics are used Hamites and Half-Hamites. Furthermore, ethnic group–related terms in the Medical only once: religion to define Jews; social in addition to a general review and Subject Headings (MeSH) used to index organization (“itinerant life and tribal standardization of racial and ethnic group articles in MEDLINE are decades old and organization”) to define gypsies; and terms, MeSH needs to reconsider its inconsistent. In light of recent debates language group (Semitic) to define Arabs. assertion in the definition of racial stocks concerning how best to describe human ‘Aborigine’ is defined as a kind of population, that there are sub-species among humans. genetic variation, this valued resource “indigenous inhabitants,” rather than a For historical accuracy, MEDLINE might requires attention so that it can continue to specific population “with a common cultural devise a way to identify articles that ascribe support high quality research1–3. heritage,” contradicting MeSH’s own ethnic to the sub-species argument. But the A search for ‘race’ in MeSH returns the group definition (see http://www.nlm. implication that this long-repudiated phrase ‘racial stocks,’ which MeSH defines nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). notion is current and legitimate is as “major living subspecies of man MeSH distinguishes between racial stocks unacceptable10,11. © Group 2003 Nature Publishing differentiated by genetic and physical and ethnic group. The former is designated characteristics” (see http://www.nlm.nih. for indexing articles that concern a Pamela Sankar gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). MeSH lists four population’s “physical characteristics, genetic races: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid and characteristics, anthropometric Department of Medical Ethics, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Australoid. It defines each of the first three measurements, physiology,” whereas the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA. as a “major racial group” distinguished latter designates articles about “cultural, e-mail: [email protected] “according to physical features.” The psychological, social, sociological or definition also lists each stock’s geographic ethnological aspects.” MeSH instructs 1. Stolberg, C.G. New York Times (New York, 2001). regions and some of its populations, which indexers to override an author’s choice of 2. Collins, F.S. & Mansoura, M.K. Cancer 91 (1 Suppl), for Negroid include “Andamanese, Afr [sic] race and ethnicity terms if it conflicts with 221–225 (2001). 3. Jorde, L. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, Bushmen, Half-Hamites, Hottentots, MeSH’s definitions (see http://www.nlm.nih. 3100–3103 (1997). Melanesians, Negrillos, Negritos, Papuans, gov/mesh/indman/chapter_30.html). 4. Coon, C., Garn, S. & Birdsell, J. Races: A Study of the Pygmies, Semangs” (see http://www.nlm.nih. Searches conducted in October 2002 suggest, Problems of Race Formation in Man (CC Thomas, Springfield, 1950). gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). Several of these however, that indexers apply this distinction 5. Molnar, S. Races, Types, and Ethnic Groups: The outdated terms appear in the same 1950 inconsistently and that in some categories, as Problem of Ethnic Variation (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975). publication that provides the original source many as 30% of articles conforming to racial 6. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English of this definition for Australoid stock criteria are instead indexed to ethnic Language (ed. Soukhanov, A.) (Houghton Mifflin, (ref. 4 as cited in ref. 5). This definition group. Boston, 1996). 7. Arnaiz-Villena, A., Martinez-Laso, J. & Alonso-Garcia, omits reference to genetic and physical Additional searches, also conducted in J. Iberia: population genetics, anthropology, and lin- characteristics and lists only the names of October 2002, showed little need for several guistics. Human Biology 71, 725–43 (1999). some Australoid populations, such as the outdated and sometimes offensive6 terms 8. Armstrong, J.C. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 72, 342–344 (1978). Veddahs of Ceylon. The Ainu of Japan are used in racial and ethnic group definitions. 9. Mathews, H.M. & Armstrong, J.C. Am. J. Trop. Med. assigned to both Mongoloid and Caucasoid For example, ‘Hamites’ is listed as a Hyg. 30, 299–303 (1981). 10. Sankar, P. & Cho, M. Science 298, 1337–1338 racial stocks (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ Caucasoid population, but as a keyword (2002). 7 mesh/MBrowser.html). search, the term returns only one article . 11. Braun, L. Perspect. Biol. Med. 45, 159–174 (2002). NATURE GENETICS VOLUME 34 | NUMBER 2 | JUNE 2003 119.