Despite its fundamental role in modern science, the process of peer review is not without its shortcomings. Recently, journals have had to retract hundreds of published manuscripts due to manipulation of the peer review process by authors.
The environmental movement has made tremendous strides in raising awareness of the impact that humanity has on the Earth. Over the past several decades, attention has focused on recycling, automobile emissions, and deforestation.
The extraordinary way in which social media lets people communicate and interact with one another can be an informative and rewarding tool for scientists to engage in science communication with peers and the general public. An estimated 2.5 billion people were using social media in 2017, and this number is expected to top 3 billion by 2021.
Although tech giants still enjoy a favorable reputation among the general public, exposure to recent scandals, chiefly surrounding the promotion of fake news, means that companies like Google and Facebook are now facing tremendous scrutiny from governments and lawmakers. Could increased standards of corporate responsibility at these companies help combat the threat posed by fake science and perhaps even lead to industry-wide changes in academic publishing?
