this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023

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Belittling Science Undermines Us All (www.openforum.com.au)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A 3M/Ipsos poll of more than 1,000 Australians published recently found 92% say that science can help us solve the problems of tomorrow and 88% see the connection between science and its role in improving their lives.

The Australian Academy of Science thanks the Australian public for their confidence and trust in science.

Perhaps the 88% of Australians surveyed who see positive benefits to their lives can imagine what life would be like without science and its application-a life without vaccines, no sanitation, no refrigeration, no smart phones, no comfortable dentistry, and no weather forecasting.

In a world in which everybody can be a sceptic but not everybody can be an expert, it is more important than ever that science is explained openly, in language that is accessible, and that the public can readily find sources of information that can be trusted-dispassionate, rational, expert.

This means fostering better public understanding of how science works and how it allows us to build knowledge over time.

Science is a system of knowledge: knowledge about the physical and natural world, knowledge gained through observation and experimentation, and knowledge organised systematically.

The public is aware: 93% of Australians surveyed believe positive outcomes can be achieved if people stand up for and defend science; 92% want business to take action to defend science.

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[+] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I agree that publishers are the proverbial landlords of the academic environment. It's always been absurd to me that scientists pay to publish in journals, and readers pay to access them.. 😵‍💫

However, (maybe independently of the above) I think there needs be an interpretation layer between some scientific article and the broader public (not popular science articles). Too many times I've seen direct quotes from scientific papers, which are understood within their niche/expert communities, get taken completely out of context or just simply misunderstood. This is completely normal; not even scientists understand the language of other fields in science.

There's been a recent increase in some scientists creating Youtube videos to accompany published works, where they simply talk through their results in everyday language. This is probably in the right direction and helps bring real science to the public in a digestable but unbiased way (then the journal article serves as verification of their claims in the video).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Some journals now also encourage a "plain language abstract" as well, along side the normal abstract.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It would be good if scientists stopped publishing in closed access journals

The thing is, publishing your article as open access generally requires you as the author to pay upwards of $2k USD. I think I've seen some that are around 4k.

[+] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Just post it on lemmy 😀

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No the reviewing is done by other scientists for free. It's potentially a bit webhosting etc but journals also take advertisements.

The entire industry is a cruel joke.

Most researchers are happy to email you a digital copy which they retain rights over if you ask though :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Correct, scientists both do the labour of reviewing articles for free and then are also charged by the journals to view the articles.

There are essentially only a few publishing companies so it's basically a racket and they can do whatever they want. Most scientists in my field post preprint type articles on arXiv though so it can always be read there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Unfortunately we often don't have a choice because there's pressure to publish in high impact journals which are usually not open access. I would love to be able to publish all of my papers in open access journals!

However, you can often email researchers asking for a copy of their papers and usually they'll be happy to share it.