A study documenting experiences of Australian health researchers and science communicators during the COVID-19 pandemic shows a shared concern regarding the contribution of long neglected issues in the research and media landscape that led to misinformation.
The combination of an urgent need for new data and understanding of the pandemic with intense public interest meant the spread of misinformation became particularly intense.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public have received a crash course in science and information literacy, with growing understanding of what constitutes robust and high-quality research,” said Dr Parker.
“To prevent or reduce misinformation, key changes are needed, from within the research community, academic and media publishing systems and government funding processes.”
Published in BMJ Open Science, University of Sydney researchers sought to identify and analyse the views of science knowledge experts about the spread of science misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They interviewed experienced, early to mid-career researchers and science communicators involved in biomedical research.
In the complex flow of health information - from generating science to then communicating research to the general public, the interviewed participants stated there were multiple factors, or ‘triggers’ that could lead to misinformation.
This included the production of fraudulent or biased science research, ‘publish or perish’ research culture, inadequate training in research misconduct, problems in the academic publishing system and lack of public access to high quality research.
The loss of specialist science journalists who can explain and critically evaluable scientific studies, and lack of skilled communicators who can translate scientific jargon also played a part.
