Communicating scientific results to the public is key to underpinning the importance of one of the university's aims: research. However, an excessive eagerness of researchers to "spread" findings can lead to oversimplification or overstatement of research, leading to unfounded expectations or misinformation. The new publication by the League of European Research Universities (LERU) entitled Communicating with integrity. Supporting researchers with best practice in communication advises universities to support the communication efforts of teaching and research staff through training and supervision to disseminate scientific results with integrity.
The document, led by Rhys Morgan, director of Science Policy, Governance and Integrity at the University of Cambridge, is the result of the collaboration of the LERU's research communication and integrity groups, in which Begoña Román and Itziar de Lecuona, from the UB faculties of Philosophy and Medicine and Health Sciences, respectively, and Jordi Sopena, from the Institutional Communication unit, participate as UB representatives. The publication warns that, recently, there has been increasing pressure on scientists to communicate their research quickly. The tempos of researchers and those of the media, especially digital media and social networks, are radically different, which can lead to an urgency in disseminating the results that may harm the understanding of the research.
Therefore, LERU stresses that universities should support their teaching and research staff in communicating their research in a clear, honest and transparent way. The document focuses on three areas:
Sincerity in communicating research: researchers should disclose all key information about the research, as well as the context or potential conflicts of interest.
Communicating uncertainty: universities should prepare their researchers to explain any uncertainties in their research process.
