iSchool Capstone

Misusing Science: Investigating the Science Misinformation Pipeline

Project tags:

data science & visualization

social media

Project poster

“Potentially Predatory Journals” (PPJs), or journals that may not adhere to proper academic peer-review, could give false credibility to questionable or pseudo-scientific papers. These potentially questionable papers can sometimes leak into the public via social networks, cherry-picking or emotionally charging results to further specific political/ideological causes. With the proliferation of “foreign information campaigns” (FICs), or state-backed disinformation operations, these social media posts are often amplified/distorted. The goal of this project is to investigate these two sources of science misinformation and lay the foundation for future work in this space.

Project participants:

Daniel Snitkovskiy

Informatics