Lynne Fessenden & Peter Montague, Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN)
Jan Beyea, Consulting in the Public Interest (CIPI)
The Science and Environmental Health Network recently began a series of conversations with some conservation biologists and ASIPI members to explore the wisdom of starting an on-line, peer-reviewed scientific journal to fill a perceived gap for publishing opportunities in the area of public interest science. We seek your advice (and support if we go forward).
Such a journal might meet a number of goals:
Provide an opportunity for peer-reviewed publication of critiques of environmental impact statements, environmental agency management plans, and corporate or NGO position statements related to sustainability, health and the environment. Such reviews should improve the scientific integrity of management plans and, in particular, lead to more appropriate treatments of uncertainty and risk, not to mention allowing critiques to become part of the public record.
Improve the quality of public interest science by providing a body of evolving, peer-reviewed literature that all of us could rely on. Too much re-inventing of the wheel takes place now because work done on issues around the country is neither preserved nor widely circulated.
Help strengthen credibility of scientists in the public interest arena, as well as activists working as scientists and those critiquing the scientific enterprise, especially those working for public interest groups.
Encourage university scientists to do more work in public interest science by providing a scholarly outlet for publications in the field.
Provide the opportunity of peer-review for methods of analysis that are challenged by corporations and unsympathetic government agencies, including those analyses that are used in court proceedings.
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