Science is the greatest of human inventions. It has solved and continues to solve many of societies most pressing questions in human health, planetary wellness, and economic viability. But one of science’s new challenges is the well being of science itself. The reproducibility crisis, misaligned motivations, literature overload, publication bias, p-hacking, retraction loss, gender inequity, complicity of university presses, and out-of-date publishing models are just a few of the maladies of science and its modes of communication. These maladies are further exacerbated with intentional disinformation campaigns and by the speed in which misinformation travels on social media. Turning the microscope on science, this talk will address these issues with a focus on how to mitigate the spread of misinformation in science and society.

Presenter Bio

Dr. Jevin West is an Associate Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington (UW). He is the co-founder of the new Center for an Informed Public at UW aimed at resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society, and strengthening democratic discourse. He is also the co-founder of the DataLab at UW, a Data Science Fellow at the eScience Institute, and Affiliate Faculty for the Center for Statistics and Social Sciences. He is the co-author of the new book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, which helps non-experts question numbers, data, and statistics without an advanced degree in data science.