American Scientist

Our special single-topic issue on Trustworthy Science explores a wide range of topics related to the ways that ethical practices of science influence public trust. Efforts to build confidence in research are not new, as evidenced by this curated trip through our archives. The editors have chosen articles to enhance understanding of how approaches to building trust in science have evolved over the years.

Here are articles directly connected to authors or topics from this issue

First Person: Latifa Jackson
As an assistant professor of pediatrics at Howard University, Latifa Jackson is concerned with public health, but also with evolutionary biology and the genetic signatures of selection that can affect disease outcomes. Jackson is part of an initiative at Howard’s William Montague Cobb Research Laboratory called the 1,000 African-American Genomes Project, which aims to compare samples from different populations of current and ancestral Africans to determine differing allele frequencies.

8 Myths About Public Understanding of Science
A 2015 Pew Research Center poll showed that the general public continues to debate particular scientific ideas on which most scientists already agree. These findings have sounded the latest call for increased attention to public understanding of science. But it should be a two-way street: There also needs to be a call for scientists’ understanding of the public.

Flint Water Crisis Yields Hard Lessons in Science and Ethics
Q&A with Virginia Tech civil engineer Marc Edwards on uncovering the water crises in Flint, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., and his efforts to prevent future water contamination.

The Hand-in-Hand Spread of Mistrust and Misinformation in Flint
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, not only left infrastructure and government agencies in need of cleaning up; the information landscape was also messy.

Moving Forward After Flint
Virginia Tech graduate student Siddhartha Roy speaks about his experiences uncovering the Flint water crisis and how it has affected his outlook on science and his career.

First Person: Mona Hanna-Attisha
Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha of Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative was an early whistleblower during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis when she discovered that blood samples from her patients contained heightened lead levels.

A Troubled Tradition
It’s time to rebuild trust among authors, editors and peer reviewers.

Public Trust in Science

Moving Beyond Impasse in Climate Change Communications
If you’re considering how to write for, speak to, or have conversations with those who may be resistant to the reality that climate change is happening and is caused by human activities, here is an overview of communication ideas that the climate change literature has explored so far.

Science Communication Lessons from "Kofta-Gate"
When misinformation circulated in Egyptian media amid the country’s political instability, one scientist learned: If you don’t defend your science, who will?

Visibility May Be the Key to Increasing Support for Science
Research shows that small acts could change public views on science.

The Danger of Viral Falsehoods in Conservation
A viral-but-wrong story claiming that koalas are at greater risk of extinction than they are demonstrates the worst of social media.

Child-Robot Interaction
What concerns about privacy and well-being arise when children play with, use, and learn from robots?

Trust and Bias in Robots
These elements of artificial intelligence present ethical challenges, which scientists are trying to solve.

How Climate Science Could Lead to Action
Institutional context and history have led to top-down knowledge dissemination. Would infrastructure for public engagement help science lead to mobilization?

What COVID-19 Misinformation Says About All of Us
Coronavirus myths reveal ourselves—our hopes, dreams, and fears. When someone shares such falsehoods, we should at least listen to their needs.

A Pandemic of Confusion
Conflicting messages have characterized not just COVID-19, but also many past disease outbreaks.

Reasonable Versus Unreasonable Doubt
Although critiques of scientific findings can be used for misleading purposes, skepticism still plays a crucial role in producing robust research.

The Gene-Editing Conversation
Public dialogue about the new technology will require major investments from scientists, journalists, and philanthropists.

Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Quality
Avner Vengosh is a geochemist studying water quality at Duke University. His most recent research has looked at water quality issues posed by hydraulic fracturing (better known as fracking), as natural gas has overtaken coal as the foremost source of energy for electricity in the United States, following the shale gas boom in the mid-2000s. Vengosh’s 2014 paper reviewing the risks of shale gas extraction and 2013 paper on fracking wastewater disposal in Pennsylvania were honored as editors’ picks for best articles in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Ethical Conduct of Research

Raising Scientific Experts
Competing interests threaten the scientific record, but courage and sound judgment can help.

To Throw Away Data: Plagiarism as a Statistical Crime
Whether data are numerical or narrative, removing them from their context represents an act of plagiarism.

Honesty
Ultimately, ethics in scientific publishing, as in life, comes down to one word.

People Cause Replication Problems, Not Machine Learning
This branch of artificial intelligence can be a reliable tool for research, if scientists use rigorous methodology.

COVID-19 Models Demand an Abundance of Caution
Everyone wants answers right now, but the ones that epidemiological models offer are tricky to interpret.

Academic Structure

Taking the Long View on Sexism in Science
Author Pat Shipman is of the many women who exited academic science. Decades later, too many others are still leaving for the same reasons.

Authorship Diplomacy
Cross-national differences complicate allocation of credit and responsibility.

Long Road to Academic-Market Success Presents Extra Challenges for Marginalized PhDs
There’s a fundamental inequity in recommending that job seekers apply for every possible scholarly position to improve their odds of an offer.

Open Science Isn't Always Open to All Scientists
Current efforts to make research more accessible and transparent can reinforce inequality within STEM professions.

The Women Who Discovered RNA Splicing
Most scientists who played key roles in this Nobel Prize–winning breakthrough disappeared from public memory. Why does this injustice persist 40 years later?

Science and the Theft of Humanity
In science's renewed interest in the human condition, a humanist sees the promise of a dialogue and a new golden age.

The Colonial Origins of Tropical Field Stations
To confront persistent geographic and demographic biases in environmental science, researchers must understand the history of their field sites.

Scientists and Policy

Becoming a Politically Engaged Scientist
Juggling science and political involvement is the new normal for many researchers.

Navajo-Led Science in Pursuit of Environmental Justice
Hydrologist Karletta Chief and her team demonstrate the importance of community-led science in the aftermath of the Gold King Mine spill.

Ending the Crisis of Complacency in Science
To survive the Trump administration, scientists needed to invest in a strategic vision that mobilizes social change.

Making Ethical Guidelines Matter
Professional societies are uniquely positioned to develop effective codes of conduct.

News Flash: Science Has Always Been Political
The March for Science has reignited an old debate about the nature of objectivity and scientific authority.

Is Wildlife Conservation Policy Based in Science?
Common claims that management of animal populations in the United States and Canada is “the best in the world” and “science-based” are often unfounded. But substantial improvements are possible.

How Property Rights Can Fight Pollution
Toxic contamination is a form of trespass. Restoring traditional legal protections could improve public health and hold industry accountable.

Dying for a Drink
Overuse, population growth, and climate change are turning water into a powerful tool for conflict in many parts of the world.

Why We Need Water Ethics
A values-based framework can guide water policy decisions that are both practical and moral.

First Person: Sheila Jasanoff
Sheila Jasanoff of Harvard University is a foundational scholar in science and technology studies. Her recent work, including a 2015 paper she published with two colleagues in Issues in Science and Technology, illuminates the history and global context of policy on biotechnology. New genetic technologies—perhaps most notably the gene editing methods using a tool derived from a bacterial immune system called CRISPR-Cas9—have reignited old debates and opened new ones about their ramifications for human evolution, public health, and society.

Multimedia

Having Faith in Science, Equivocally
Unequivocally deny scientific results? No, that’s saying there's certainty when there must be doubt.

The Social Organization of Innovative Scientific Groups
A discussion with sociologist and Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Ed Hackett on the history and outcomes of social organization in science, and what that means for those who wish to cultivate an innovative scientific environment.

First Person: Peter Jay Hotez
Virologist Peter Hotez is internationally recognized as a pediatrician-scientist in vaccine development and neglected tropical diseases. As codirector of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and professor and dean at the Baylor College of Medicine, he also regularly consults on the coronavirus pandemic—how to quantify it and ways to mitigate its spread, including the development of vaccines. As the parent of an adult daughter with autism, Hotez knows well the extent to which the anti-vaccine movement presents challenges to public health.

Vaccines, Antiscience Beliefs, and Future Pandemics
Vaccines prevent 2 million to 3 million deaths per year, but they are facing a new enemy: rampant misinformation.

Reviews

How Best to Foster Healthy Behaviors
A review of LAZY, CRAZY, AND DISGUSTING: Stigma and the Undoing of Global Health by Alexandra Brewis and Amber Wutich.

Physicians of the Manhattan Project
A review of ATOMIC DOCTORS: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age by James L. Nolan, Jr.

Mistrust, Metaphor, and Medicine
A review of ON IMMUNITY: An Inoculation, by Eula Biss.

Studying Big Science
A review of STRUCTURES OF SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION, by Wesley Shrum, Joel Genuth and Ivan Chompalov.

Using Data to End Oppression
A review of DATA FEMINISM, by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein.