New toolkit helps newsrooms ground work in scientific evidence

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From vaccines and fluoride to climate change and immigration, newsrooms facing a barrage of issues related to the priorities of a new presidential administration have a new resource for covering issues in 2025 in which misinformation is likely to proliferate and scientific consensus be challenged.

SciLine, a nonprofit organization that helps journalists incorporate more scientific evidence into their work, has produced a new, free toolkit for newsrooms aimed at helping journalists cut through the political back-and-forth on hot button issues and reach a heavily polarized audience with a strictly nonpartisan focus on expert research on a given topic.

Evidence-Based Reporting Tools and Tips for 2025 includes detailed information and advice for journalists on how to understand scientific research, incorporate it into reporting and avoid mistakes, as well as extensive background context and common misconceptions about some of the biggest issues of 2025.

It will be paired with an aggressive schedule of free training webinars SciLine is offering in the first few months of the year, including “Science Essentials for Local Reporters,” “Stats Essentials for Math-Averse Reporters” and “Beyond the Basics of Science Reporting.”

“Research has shown that people who understand how research methods work, how scientific consensus on an issue is built — and how it can evolve, change or be corrected over time as we learn more — are less susceptible to believing misinformation and pseudoscience. Journalists can play a critical role in that,” said Matt DeRienzo, who joined SciLine as director in November following four years as editor-in-chief of the Center for Public Integrity, a national nonprofit investigative newsroom.

The toolkit includes a guide to free ongoing services offered by SciLine and other organizations, including The Journalist’s Resource, a program based at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center whose work is included in the toolkit, and The Open Notebook.

Founded in 2017, SciLine’s staff includes both scientists and journalists working together to connect newsrooms with expert sources on deadline, including experts with broadcast interview experience for local TV; provide free training to journalists on science essentials; training to scientists on how to communicate with journalists; and deep expert background briefings on timely issues for newsrooms.

SciLine has served more than 3,600 reporters at more than 1,400 news organizations in all 50 states and has worked directly with more than 4,000 scientists at nearly 1,000 research institutions. It is housed at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest multidisciplinary science organization and publisher of the Science family of journals.