Journalism is key to combating bad practices in science

Watchdog science journalism has become a fundamental tool to counter scientific malpractice, such as publication fraud, abuse and political and corporate manipulation of science. A study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has mapped for the first time the rise of this type of journalism in Ibero-America through interviews with 15 journalists from the region who have investigated prominent cases of bad science. The work, the first to study this practice in the region, has just been published in the journal Media and Communication.