Sense About Sci­ence, a part­ner of Tay­lor & Fran­cis, has released a new guide to peer review to help the pub­lic make sense of research claims. The guide is titled I Don’t Know What to Believe: Mak­ing Sense of Sci­ence Sto­ries.

The guide addresses ques­tions such as how we can trust the claims made in the media about sci­en­tific stud­ies; and how we can deci­pher false claims form the ones we can trust when a new drug appears or a study claims that we are at risk. It has been observed that under­stand­ing peer review and ask­ing about the sta­tus of claims is impor­tant to soci­ety because it helps peo­ple make decisions.

The guide 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 and health stories.

Fol­low­ing the suc­cess of a UK peer review guide, Sense About Sci­ence has now cre­ated a US ver­sion pro­vid­ing the tools to talk directly to the pub­lic and how to address their issues.

Sense About Sci­ence is an inter­na­tional non-profit organ­i­sa­tion that equips peo­ple to make sense of sci­ence and evi­dence on issues that mat­ter to soci­ety. With a net­work of more than 5,000 sci­en­tists, the organ­i­sa­tion works with sci­en­tific bod­ies, research pub­lish­ers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, the pub­lic and the media to lead pub­lic dis­cus­sions about sci­ence and evidence.”

Source:  Knowl­edge­s­peak Newslet­ter, 3/4/13

Link from Neil Nero:
http://www.senseaboutscience.org/resources.php/116/i-dont-know-what-to-believe-us-version