The 311-page document is the national academies’ first report addressing sexual harassment, a problem that has long simmered in labs and classrooms, and some people predicted it could help spur meaningful change.

“Reports from the National Academy carry substantial weight,” said Dr. Carol Bates, associate dean for faculty affairs at Harvard Medical School and a co-author of a recent article calling for “zero tolerance for sexual harassment in academic medicine.”

But, she noted, “none of it is easy or we would have fixed it already. We haven’t fixed it in any other domain in society either.”

Academic workplaces are second only to the military in the rate of sexual harassment, with 58 percent of academic employees indicating they had such experiences, according to one study cited in the report. Among the data involving students in scientific fields, the report cited a 2017 survey by the University of Texas system, which found that about 20 percent of female science students, more than 25 percent of female engineering students and more than 40 percent of female medical students experienced sexual harassment from faculty or staff members.

The issue is also a sensitive one for the National Academies because some of their own members have been found to have committed sexual misconduct at their universities. Responding to questions at a briefing on the report, Bruce Darling, the executive officer of the academies, said the institutions were considering trying to oust members who committed harassment, but doing so would require a lengthy process dependent on voting by members, so other measures are being considered in the interim.