Written evidence submitted by Sarah Burns (COM0096)

Having read the Science Media Centre's submission to this committee, I felt compelled to provide links to additional information.

The Science Media Centre has played an important role in creating a culture within British science journalism that hopes to uncritically report the views of those in positions of authority. This is dangerous in the field of science, as it would be in the field of politics.

A recent report from the Centre for Welfare reform explored some of the ways in which, through the Science Media Centre, important scientific results had been spun, patients stigmatised and a controversy misrepresented. This was British research, with important implication for British politics and society, yet it is US science journalists who have provided the only meaningful coverage of this issue.

www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/by-date/in-the-expectation-of-recovery.html

I encourage the committee to read this report, and investigate the issues around this topic, to better understand the problems which surround science communication in the UK.

While I expect that the committee will be aware of the replication crisis in psychology research, and the concern that it reflects wider problems within science, I will also link to this recent summary:

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-29/may-2016/our-struggle-between-science-and-pseudoscience

I get the impression that for some in Government promoting trust in 'science' is preferred to promoting a commitment to critically assessing the evidence. When so much scientific research is not trustworthy, this seems misguided.

Members of Parliament assessing the role of science in British society should be independently and critically assessing the evidence themselves, rather than trusting those in positions of scientific authority. To some this may seem a daunting task, but engaging with the evidence in this area is no more challenging, or less important, than engaging with economic, political or social research.

May 2016