Determining the Credibility of Science Communication

TL;DR

This paper discusses the challenges in verifying the credibility of scientific communication, focusing on ensuring claims are supported and preventing misrepresentation in public dissemination.

Contribution

It introduces initial approaches to assess scientific credibility and highlights key remaining challenges in trustworthy science communication.

Findings

Identified core issues in scientific credibility verification

Proposed preliminary methods for assessing claim support

Outlined future research directions

Abstract

Most work on scholarly document processing assumes that the information processed is trustworthy and factually correct. However, this is not always the case. There are two core challenges, which should be addressed: 1) ensuring that scientific publications are credible -- e.g. that claims are not made without supporting evidence, and that all relevant supporting evidence is provided; and 2) that scientific findings are not misrepresented, distorted or outright misreported when communicated by journalists or the general public. I will present some first steps towards addressing these problems and outline remaining challenges.