In a climate of fake news and alternative facts where even the climate itself is a matter of debate, trust has never been simultaneously so important and so seriously challenged. Journalistic and scientific fact-checking is becoming ever-more critical to public policy and our daily lives. As disseminators and amplifiers of knowledge, scholarly publishers have a role to play on the front lines in the battle against fake news and misinformation.
How does a community that relies on rigour and accuracy preserve the integrity of information across academic literature while also championing innovation and access?
What can the world of scholarly communications learn from other sectors which are struggling with these issues?With a slew of new technologies (Factmata, Jigsaw [within Alphabet], plus others) and processes being developed to create tools around tackling misinformation, how might we look at integrating these into our publishing workflows?