The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) and the Scholarly Kitchen will offer a webinar entitled, The Future of Quality, Accuracy and Science Communication, on November 14, 2017, from 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern Time.
Registration for the event is still open with a discount available for SSP members.
Scholarly Kitchen Chefs David Crotty, Editorial Director, Journals Policy, Oxford University Press, and Michael Clarke, President, Clarke and Company, will lead a panel discussion with prominent science communicators about the roles of scholarly publishers, libraries, journalists, industry and government in adding to or challenging the questions raised about scientific accuracy.
Information overload or fake news? How can scholars and the general public navigate the current media landscape to validate what they think they know? These questions and more will be discussed on November 14.
Speakers will include:
- Laura Helmuth is the Health, Science and Environment Editor for The Washington Post and the current president of the National Association of Science Writers. She has been an editor for National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian and Science and has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley.
- Rick Anderson is Associate Dean for Collections and Scholarly Communication at the J. Willard Marriott Library of the University of Utah. He writes regularly for the Scholarly Kitchen and is a past president of NASIG and of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. His upcoming book, Scholarly Communication: What Everyone Needs to Know, will be published in 2018 by Oxford University Press.
- Derek Lowe has been involved in early-stage drug research since 1989 at several different biopharma companies, working across a range of therapeutic areas. Since 2002, he’s been the author of “In the Pipeline”, the longest-running science blog on the internet, covering chemistry and drug discovery topics.
David Crotty took the time to answer a few questions about the webinar:
Who is the intended audience for this webinar and why should they attend?
This webinar is intended for a broad audience of SSP members, and should be of interest to researchers, librarians, publishers and technology suppliers. The question of how the materials we produce is perceived by the public is a central issue across the scholarly communications landscape.
Why do you think this topic is important and timely?
As noted above, this is a key issue for our times. The entire research venture is about the pursuit of truth and knowledge, both concepts that are under assault.
Is there a particular topic you’re looking forward to seeing discussed?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from Laura Helmuth, and finding out more about how mainstream media finds stories of interest from the research world, and what their vetting processes are like.
What do the selected speakers bring to the discussion?
Each brings a valuable perspective on interpreting and sharing the information presented in scholarly works. We have a speaker that acts as a science reporter, translating research to the general public, a librarian who has to both make purchasing decisions and advise scholars in where to place their trust, and an industry researcher, who has to make crucial decisions about the literature over where to invest valuable time and effort. We hope to learn from each how they decide what to read and what to believe.
What can attendees expect from the webinar?
A lively conversation, ranging from a broad look at how society’s information practices are evolving to the details of how each speaker interacts with the research literature.
What do you hope attendees will take away from the webinar?
Insight into what we can do to make our publications more trustworthy, as well as methods to help attendees who are in similar positions where these vetting processes are taking place.
Don’t miss this exciting conversation! Click here to register now.
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