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Reporting science and conflicts of interest in the lay press
Daniel M Cook1, Elizabeth A Boyd, Claudia Grossmann
1School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, United States of America. dmcook@unr.edu
Background:
Forthright reporting of financial ties and conflicts of interest of researchers is associated with public trust in and esteem for the scientific enterprise.
Methods/Principal Findings:
We searched Lexis/Nexis Academic News for the top news stories in science published in 2004 and 2005. We conducted a content analysis of 1152 newspaper stories. Funders of the research were identified in 38% of stories, financial ties of the researchers were reported in 11% of stories, and 5% reported financial ties of sources quoted. Of 73 stories not reporting on financial ties, 27% had financial ties publicly disclosed in scholarly journals.
Conclusions/Significance:
Because science journalists often did not report conflict of interest information, adherence to gold-standard recommendations for science journalism was low. Journalists work under many different constraints, but nonetheless news reports of scientific research were incomplete, potentially eroding public trust in science.
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