New Guide to Peer Reviewed Launched in U.S.; Produced and Distributed With Help From Many Scholarly Publishers
From the UK’s “Sense About Science” Organization:
A new guide to peer review is launched in the US today to help the public make sense of research claims.
People are bombarded with claims in newspapers and on the internet that are based on scientific studies. When faced with a headline that suggests an Alzheimer’s drug increases the risk of heart attack or that watching TV is bad for children’s mental health, or that pesticides are causing a decline in bee populations, people have to work out what to believe. Which claims should be taken seriously? Which are ‘scares’?
I Don’t Know What to Believe: Making Sense of Science Stories… explains the peer review process – the system researchers use to assess the validity, significance and originality of papers. It captures experiences and insights from editors and scientists and encourages people to ask “Is it peer reviewed?” when reading science stories.
A similar publication launched in the UK is now used by health workers, librarians, public-health officials, policy-makers, technology companies, safety bodies, popular writers, educators, parenting groups and local government. These are the people who are speaking directly with the public everyday and answering their questions.
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This guide has been produced and distributed with sponsorship and help from: the American Chemical Society, American Institute of Physics, BioMed Central, Elsevier, International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers, National Press Foundation, Nature Publishing Group, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers, Public Library of Science, Taylor & Francis Group, Wolters Kluwer and Wiley.
Read the Complete Publication Announcement
Direct to Full Text: I Don’t Know What to Believe: Making Sense of Science Stories (U.S. Version)
Direct to UK Version
Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Elsevier, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, PLOS, Public Libraries, Publishing
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.