Risk Science in Practice: A Framework for Gauging Risk Principles in Domain-Specific Discourse

Risk science is increasingly interwoven across various domains, aiming to be both generalizable and domain-specific to build consistency and applicability across risk applications. However, those risk discussions, such as in materials that aim to share risk-related information with stakeholders, may have varying levels of alignment with risk science. In this paper, we present a framework for comparing and broadly understanding how generalizable risk concepts and risk study quality criteria are addressed in various domain-specific risk discussions that are not intended to be formal risk studies, such as materials used to inform policymakers, investor reports, and reports for regulatory compliance. While the framework is supported by criteria developed for risk study quality in formal risk studies, we discuss how to apply the framework using text analysis methodologies and technologies. The results of the framework then identify areas in which risk discussions do not sufficiently align with risk science principles and identify areas in which the use of risk science for these discussions can be improved. We then develop key findings related to features in mapping risk concepts to domain-specific risk discussions. This leads to opportunities to build consistency in risk-related discourse across various domain areas.