How can the Biden administration reduce scientific disinformation? Slow the high-pressure pace of scientific publishing

ABSTRACT

For years now, the pressure in academia to publish in journals has been intense; getting articles published in prestigious journals is good for one’s career, and it’s important in winning grant funding. But high productivity isn’t necessarily synonymous with high quality. The COVID-19 pandemic and the absolute flood of scientific articles it has unleashed underscore that point. To tamp down on the flow of flawed science seen during the pandemic, computer scientist and disinformation researcher Walter Scheirer believes the Biden administration can make changes to how the National Institutes of Health awards grants, reducing the importance of prolific publishing.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• disinformation
• academic publishing
• National Institutes of Health
• funding
• Joe Biden
• productivity
• incentives

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matt Field

Matt Field is an associate editor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.