IUPS bodies and national societies continue to publish guidelines which may be of use to develop physiologic sciences and infrastructure at the national level, help to improve teaching methods and contents, and give a guidance for use of proper methods. Our section does not claim completeness or governance. It rather aims to provide a forum to identify open questions, to promote good and proven solutions and to stand up for good physiological standards in measurements and experimental design.
1. Societies should carefully track and report member numbers so that global trends in Physiology engagement can be more confidently quantified.
2. Societies deserve recognition for advancing outreach programs and online teaching resources. To improve access and inclusivity, the IUPS and larger organizations should consider a shared portal and further supporting smaller societies.
3. Member societies should ensure gender equity in council and other governance positions and have in place initiatives and/or policies that support equity, diversity and inclusivity of gender and minorities.
4. Societies should evaluate whether aspects of online and/or remote adaptations imposed by the pandemic improved the quality of physiology education. IUPS and member societies should disseminate and discuss these changes, to provide resources and guidelines for best practices in Physiology education.
5. Member societies should be encouraged to develop context-specific guidelines aligned with overarching global principles and policies to guide the ethical use of artificial intelligence in Physiology education and research.
6. Physiological societies in concert with IUPS should continue to highlight and support high-quality animal research models conducted using best practice approaches within the boundaries of accepted regulatory and ethical standards.
7. Member societies and IUPS should standardize research ethics guidelines aligned with international protocols, enhance ethics training and access to online resources and support, incentivize ethical practices and foster cross-institutional collaboration in
research ethics.
8. Member societies should improve their support for the publication of peer-reviewed research protocols and provide guidance and guidelines to their members for the publication of such protocols.
9. Member societies are encouraged to systematically track the career outcomes of graduates across various programs, especially given the limited availability of robust data in this area.
10. IUPS should enhance global impact by fostering international collaboration and mobility, expanding educational and mentorship initiatives and amplifying its visibility and advocacy to better engage member societies.
Physiology is both a life science in its own right, and a basic medical science. Physiology today – according to the IUPS – intends to encompass the study of the functions and integrative processes of life at all levels of structural complexity between the molecular level and that of the whole organism. It includes all organisms, and frames function in evolutionary, environmental, ecological and behavioral contexts. Physiology is an exciting and dynamic discipline that has enormous impact on the quality of human life. Physiology exerts a cross-disciplinary approach to modern science, through which physiologists aim to achieve translation of functional understanding into the health of humans, animals and ecosystems. In particular, the ever increasing understanding of body functions enables identification of novel therapeutic targets for prevention and treatment of diseases.
Physiologists have expert opinions on necessary standards. The APS has published a seminal book series on physiological methods. See here.