While fact-checks and debates about misinformation and censorship often take the spotlight, the professionals dedicated to uncovering and sharing reliable scientific information remain overlooked and see their support erode.
The People’s Case for Curators makes the case for “public-good curators” including librarians, editors, research integrity officers, specialist journalists. Their careful, principled work helps society find reliable information through transparent and accountable processes, standing in stark contrast to the hidden, algorithm-driven curation that shapes social media feeds.
Based on insights from curators themselves, the guide highlights the urgent need to make their work more visible and valued with recommended actions for how to be a part of the solution. It outlines the principles that underpin their roles such as encouraging curiosity, building for understanding, organizing and evaluating source material.
Additionally, it highlights how public-good curators help individuals ask better questions and safeguard routes to credible answers – building critical thinking skills at a time when misinformation is widespread.
Tracey Brown, Director of Sense about Science, said: “Public awareness of the importance of reliable information isn’t matched by the value society is placing on the people who provide it. Knowledge doesn’t curate itself, and it is in all of our interests that those who do it are visible and valued.”
Ziyad Marar, President of Global Publishing at Sage, said: “Sage’s mission is to discover, develop, curate, edit, promote and reward ideas so that they become cultural products that benefit humanity. This report supports that mission, highlighting the essential but often invisible work of curation and the vital role of curators – editors, librarians, journalists – who labor to bring reliable, scientifically produced information to the world, enabling individuals to think critically as they engage with that knowledge.”
Sage and Sense about Science call on the public to stand up for public-good curators, so that we can all continue to rely on the principles that make reliable information possible. Download the guide.