September 21, 2020 | Council for Agricultural Science and Technology—Ames, Iowa 

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) released a new paper, The Importance of Communicating Empirically Based Science for Society. It is now available for download.

This paper discusses the crucial factors of what we define as empirically based science (rigorous, proven methodologies, and peer-reviewed results), emphasizing that whether science is conducted by a private company, a university, or a government department or agency, it is all the same, requiring that sound methodologies be followed. Scientific research protocols and methodologies have been developed, reviewed, and refined through the application of each scientific method and the peer review of experimental protocols and results, creating global standards on research methods. Empirical science is empirical science—it is not an ice cream flavor, and one cannot pick and choose which aspect of the scientific method to support and which to reject. The application of empirical science is consistent, whether applied to climate change, vaccines, or GM crops and foods. Scientists have an important responsibility to design and execute experiments that are unbiased and directly answer a specific question.

Dr. Meghan Wulster-Radcliffe, American Society of Animal Science and an author of this paper, commented, “Electronic publishing has been the single greatest driver of enhanced quantity, speed, and availability of publications to both scientists and the public.” The most common—and perhaps least known—business model to grow from online publishing and public demand in comprehending science is open access. This Commentary briefly discusses the four main approaches to open access publishing: gold open access, green open access, hybrid models, and traditional closed models.

The Commentary paper, The Importance of Communicating Empirically Based Science for Society, is available to download for free on CAST’s website. Registration for the free webinar can be made here. The webinar will take place at Noon Central on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Dr. Stuart Smyth, University of Saskatchewan and task force chair, will share highlights of the publication, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with the paper’s authors.

Task Force Authors:

• Stuart Smyth, Chair, University of Saskatchewan
• Jon Entine, Genetic Literacy Project
• Ruth MacDonald, Iowa State University
• Cami Ryan, Bayer Crop Science
• Meghan Wulster-Radcliffe, American Society of Animal Science

Contact Information 

Kent Schescke | CAST Executive Vice President

(515) 292-2125 | kschescke@cast-science.org

About CAST

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology is an international consortium of scientific and professional societies, companies, and nonprofit organizations. Through its network of experts, CAST assembles, interprets, and communicates credible, balanced, science-based information to policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.