White papers, working papers, preprints, journal articles: What’s the difference?
In this updated piece, we explain the most common types of research papers journalists will encounter, noting their strengths and weaknesses.
Know Your Research
Tip sheets and explainers to help journalists understand academic research methods, find and recognize high-quality research, and avoid missteps when reporting on new studies and public opinion polls
Expert Commentary
‘Using Academic Research to Keep Politicians Honest’: A video training for journalists across beats
This recording of our 50-minute training session shows journalists how research can be a powerful tool for holding governments and politicians accountable and fighting disinformation.
Expert Commentary
How different are preprints from their published versions? 2 studies have some answers
Both studies find that most COVID-19 research papers don’t drastically change between the time they are posted on a preprint server and when they’re published in an academic journal.
Expert Commentary
Covering scientific consensus: What to avoid and how to get it right
Three researchers explain how journalists can use scientific consensus to bolster their coverage and battle misinformation about public policy topics.
Expert Commentary
5 tips for avoiding mistakes in news headlines about health and medical research
Prominent science journalists Deborah Blum, Cristine Russell and Brooke Borel offer advice to help newsrooms avoid common mistakes in writing headlines about health and medical research.
Expert Commentary
Story ideas from the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book: Sept. 2021
The Beige Book offers a high-level glimpse of current economic sentiment across the bank’s 12 districts. We reveal story ideas from the September release, including the flipside of the global microchip shortage that’s hurting auto sales, “belligerent customers” and more.
Expert Commentary
Trusting science leaves people vulnerable to believing pseudoscience, new research finds
Knowledge of research methods can help the public discern valid scientific claims from false or misleading ones, researchers explain.
Expert Commentary
5 common research designs: A quick primer for journalists
If you’re not sure how a cross-sectional analysis differs from a randomized, controlled clinical trial, keep reading. We offer a broad overview of five of the most common research designs journalists encounter.
Expert Commentary
Reporting on scientific failures and holding the science community accountable: 5 tips for journalists
Two scholars offer guidance to help newsrooms report more accurately on scientists’ work and hold the scientific community responsible for protecting the integrity of science.
Expert Commentary
By changing their framing of scientific failures and discoveries, journalists can bolster trust in science: New research
Researchers urge newsrooms to present scientific errors and academic journal retractions as part of science’s self-correction process.
Expert Commentary