Trust is central to the way research is communicated, evaluated and used. This archive issue brings together perspectives on the relationships between evidence, institutions, publishing and public life.
Periods of economic and institutional pressure can make questions of trust especially visible. Researchers, readers, policy communities and publishers all depend on clear processes and credible information when decisions need to be made.
The articles collected here examine trust in academic publishing, including digital tools intended to support research practice and the importance of making study findings available whether results are favourable, mixed or inconclusive.
The issue also considers institutions and policy processes: how transparency, competing interests and communication shape confidence in public decision-making. Its final group of articles turns to public trust in science, with attention to risk communication, social relevance and the ways research is understood beyond specialist settings.
Reading the archive
This issue was first published in 2015. It is presented here as an archive collection; its topics remain useful starting points for considering how scientific work earns and maintains confidence.
Articles in this issue
Considering the everyday elements of trust
An editorial reflection on the assumptions and small signals that affect confidence.
Digital routes to rebuilding trust in academic publishing
A look at the practical role of online services in research communication.
When publication omits unfavourable findings
Why a fuller research record matters for evidence-based decisions.
Confidence, scrutiny and policy-making
An examination of the pressures that shape public policy discussions.
Transparency questions in nanotechnology policy
How regulatory processes and stakeholder interests can affect public confidence.
Risk perception and building public confidence
Perspective on communication approaches for complex areas of public concern.
Science, social relevance and public trust
Questions about how social and economic connections influence perceptions of science.
Public confidence in science across Europe
An archive perspective on longer-term patterns in attitudes to scientific work.