The scientific community must adopt the explicit disclosure of research funding as a ¡°core norm¡±, a global science group has said, describing such transparency as ¡°the first line of defence against the compromise of research integrity?and the spread of misinformation and disinformation¡±.

The International Science Council (ISC), a non-governmental organisation comprising 250 scientific groups, ?that the ¡°complex system¡± of research funding, with sources across the public, private and philanthropic sectors, allows ¡°hidden funding links¡± to ¡°distort scientific findings, mislead the public and suppress evidence¡±.

While ¡°vested interests¡± in research outcomes are ¡°inevitable¡±, the ISC says, funding transparency can prevent researchers and funders attempting to ¡°influence, compromise or manipulate research processes and outcomes in the service of such interests¡±.

Research manipulation ¡°fuels misinformation, damages trust in science and can harm people and the planet¡±, the ISC paper says. With government funding for research declining across multiple countries, the group added, research institutions and universities are increasingly relying on private sector funding, often ¡°with little or no consideration for transparency¡±.

ÌÇÐÄVlog

Citing as examples the efforts of the tobacco, pesticide and fossil fuel industries to ¡°[mislead] the public for commercial gain¡±, the council also notes ¡°anti-science actions by governments, advancing a variety of agendas, such as those impacting health and environmental policies¡±.

While funding transparency does not completely resolve the issues of misinformation and disinformation, the ISC says, it is a ¡°relatively easy¡± and low-cost first step.

ÌÇÐÄVlog

Setting out four recommendations for the implementation of funding transparency, the council calls on the global scientific community to ¡°explicitly disclos[e] the extent of financial and other support provided by funders to researchers¡±, with this support also ¡°noted in all public communications by the researcher such as articles, websites, presentations, conferences and in all contexts where the researcher can reasonably be taken to be speaking as an expert¡±.

Scientific journals should require contributors to formally declare their funding sources, the ISC says, while scientific institutions and organisations should be ¡°proactive¡± in developing routine, standardised transparency procedures.

Funding transparency must not be considered to be the responsibility of individual scholars, the ISC stresses, but must be ¡°recognised as shared between universities, learned societies, unions, funding bodies and other scientific organisations, and not held to be the sole responsibility of individual researchers¡±.

¡°Safeguarding science is a shared responsibility grounded in human rights,¡± the ISC adds. ¡°When science is manipulated, people are denied access to reliable knowledge, and this prevents the effective exercise of the human right to participate in and benefit from science.¡±

ÌÇÐÄVlog

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com