Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2023

How to Improve Research Integrity and Confidence in Research

Tracey Brown, Matthias Mayer, Laura Hassink, Jonathan Birdwell

2022 Circle

This Round Table will mark the global launch of the report ‘Confidence in Research’ conducted by Economist Impact and supported by Elsevier. Digitalization has impacted not only the practice and dissemination of scientific knowledge, but also the credibility of how scientific information is judged.
Putting scientific research at the forefront, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the conflicted perception of science in contemporary societies. The abundance of information available online made it more difficult for researchers to navigate the scientific landscape and tell facts from fiction.

This Round Table talk will discuss the drivers of confidence in research and put forward potential solutions that can support the scientific research community in a way that ultimately improves research integrity and confidence in science.

The event is cohosted by our partners Elsevier and Körber-Stiftung.

Tracey Brown

Sense about Science

Director

Tracey Brown OBE has been the director of Sense about Science (SaS) since 2002. Under her leadership, the charity has turned the case for sound science and evidence into popular campaigns to urge scientific thinking among the public and the people who answer to them. It has launched important initiatives to expand and protect honest discussions of evidence, including AllTrials, a global campaign for the reporting of all clinical trial outcomes; and the Ask for Evidence campaign, which engages the public in requesting evidence for claims. It has challenged opinions and changed the behaviour of governments, media and corporations in the use of scientific evidence. Tracey leads SaS’ work on the transparency of evidence used by governments in policy, to ensure that the public has access to the same evidence and reasoning as decision-makers. With PERITIA Tracey will provide strategic advice and public engagement insights.

Matthias Mayer

Körber Stiftung

Matthias Mayer has been Head of Department Science at the Körber Foundation Hamburg since 2008. His responsibilities include the Körber Prize for European Science; previously he was project manager of the German Thesis Award. He studied philosophy, German language and literature, politics and education in Constance and at the Free University of Berlin. He has been active in cultural politics, serving as chairman of the Altona Cultural Committee. He sits on various committees for science communication; his main content areas are science policy and the promotion of young scientists.

Laura Hassink

Elsevier

Laura Hassink is responsible for Elsevier’s portfolio of 2,650 journals managed by more than 24,000 editors, who collectively publish more than 560,000 research articles a year. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Publishing Transformation, overseeing operational support for its journals, improving and innovating the publication experience for authors, peer reviewers and editors. Laura has also been instrumental in accelerating Elsevier’s substantial progress in open access publishing, with the company now offering more than 600 gold open access journals, as well as open access publishing options across all its portfolios.
During her 25 years with Elsevier, she has also served as the SVP of Product Management for ScienceDirect and Journal Branded Solutions as well as the SVP Physical Sciences in STM Journals and held positions in Strategy, Business Development and Journal Services. Since 2015, Laura has been active as a board member of the Dutch Publishers Association, Mediafederatie and as Chair of the Media Voor Vak en Wetenschap (MVW). She currently serves as Chair of the MEVW Open Science Forum. Laura has a genuine passion for understanding the needs of the research communities we serve and maintaining the highest quality and integrity standards in scholarly communications.

Jonathan Birdwell

Jonathan Birdwell is Regional Head (EMEA) of Policy & Insights at Economist Impact, the in-house think tank of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist newspaper. Jonathan led the team investigating the impact of the pandemic on the research community’s confidence in research, supported by Elsevier. Prior to joining The Economist Group, Jonathan was Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank focused on tackling misinformation and disinformation.

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