Quantitative evaluation of science and technology financial policies based on the PMC-AE index model: A case study of China's science and technology financial policies since the 13th five-year plan.

The formulation of science and technology financial policies directly influences the direction of national economic development. Quantitative evaluation of these policies is an important method to reflect the consistency and strengths and weaknesses of policy interrelations. This paper analyzes 16 science and technology financial policy documents issued by the Chinese central government from 2016 to 2022, using text analysis and content analysis to extract keyword frequencies, and constructs 9 primary variables and 34 secondary variables. For the first time, a PMC-AE index model for science and technology financial policies is established, and a quantitative evaluation is conducted on 5 significant policy documents out of the 16. The results show that, from an overall analysis, Policy 1 and Policy 4 are at a good level, while the other three policies are at an excellent level. From the analysis of individual policy PMC-AE indexes, the rankings in descending order are: P2 > P5 > P3 > P4 > P1. Overall, the policies effectively meet the needs of China's science and technology financial development, with P2, P3, and P5 being at an excellent level, P4 at a good level, and P1 at an acceptable level, mainly reflecting the need for improvement in aspects such as policy synchronization with the current stage, targeted entities, guiding fields, and policy content. It is recommended that Chinese government departments should focus on five aspects in policy formulation: building a talent system for science and technology finance, improving the quality of financial services, coordinating central and local financial policies, protecting intellectual property rights in science and technology finance, and strengthening financial supervision. This will be conducive to the effective implementation of science and technology financial policies.

Fostering inclusive science media: Insights from examining the relationship between women's identities and their anticipated engagement with Deep Look YouTube science videos.

As science media content creators strive for inclusivity in communication design and promotion, they must consider the influence of audiences' identities on their engagement with science media. A gender gap in viewership or "missing audience" has been identified for women viewers for educational science content on digital media; one such example of this is Deep Look, a science video series from KQED public media and PBS Digital Studios distributed on YouTube. This study used a mixed method design (1) to examine women's preferences for Deep Look YouTube video promotions (i.e., episode titles and thumbnail images-the images that act as a preview for the video) to best inform future design of promotional content for these videos to attract more women viewers, and (2) to explore how women's preferences for science content are linked to their social identities, science identity, and science curiosity. Findings indicated that women's preferences for promotions for Deep Look YouTube science and nature videos followed expected trends with most women preferring images perceived as visually attractive and colorful more than images perceived as disgusting or gross. However, these preferences were conditional on science curiosity and science identity. Findings indicated that to boost women's engagement with YouTube science and nature videos, content creators may find it useful to consider how science curious various women audiences are, how strongly women viewers identify with being a science person, and how their most salient social identities motivate engagement.

Expectations of Katowice residents regarding the program assumptions of the European city of science Katowice 2024 in the field of medical and health sciences - questionnaire survey results.

INTRODUCTION: Scientific literacy has been the subject of studies for several decades, but there is much less interest in the social perception of science, traceability of key areas of scientific activity and social expectations regarding science. Proper recognition of such issues can significantly contribute to a better understanding of the causes of the crisis of trust in science and help to find an effective and socially acceptable solution to mitigate it. Our study was aimed at identifying and systematizing the public needs and expectations towards medical and health sciences, based on the example of the population of Katowice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out using a mixed, qualitative-quantitative methodology. Based on the conclusions of the in-depth interviews, a questionnaire was constructed to check the level of awareness of residents of Katowice obtaining the title of the European City of Science 2024 and the respondents' opinion on the development of medical and health sciences. 400 inhabitants of the city and/or people associated with it through their work or education took part in the questionnaire survey. RESULTS: Only 7.8% of respondents had in-depth knowledge about the European City of Science 2024 project, with further 28.8% declaring some level of general knowledge of the issue. Study participants associated medical and health sciences with health promotion and clinical specialties (43% and 33,5% respectively). In terms of further development of medical and health sciences in Katowice study participants prioritized mainly development of research in chronic and lifestyle-related diseases (51%) and the need of development of prevention and health promotion (46.3%) as well as clinical medicine (32.8%). The inhabitants of the city recognize the resources of the city and the region in the field of medical sciences and health sciences as large and with high development potential. CONCLUSIONS: The events organized as part of the European City of Science 2024 should become a good opportunity to promote and disseminate knowledge about the achievements and development potential of the City and the Region in the field of medical and health sciences.

Evidence-based scientific thinking and decision-making in everyday life.

In today's knowledge economy, it is critical to make decisions based on high-quality evidence. Science-related decision-making is thought to rely on a complex interplay of reasoning skills, cognitive styles, attitudes, and motivations toward information. By investigating the relationship between individual differences and behaviors related to evidence-based decision-making, our aim was to better understand how adults engage with scientific information in everyday life. First, we used a data-driven exploratory approach to identify four latent factors in a large set of measures related to cognitive skills and epistemic attitudes. The resulting structure suggests that key factors include curiosity and positive attitudes toward science, prosociality, cognitive skills, and openmindedness to new information. Second, we investigated whether these factors predicted behavior in a naturalistic decision-making task. In the task, participants were introduced to a real science-related petition and were asked to read six online articles related to the petition, which varied in scientific quality, while deciding how to vote. We demonstrate that curiosity and positive science attitudes, cognitive flexibility, prosociality and emotional states, were related to engaging with information and discernment of evidence reliability. We further found that that social authority is a powerful cue for source credibility, even above the actual quality and relevance of the sources. Our results highlight that individual motivating factors toward information engagement, like curiosity, and social factors such as social authority are important drivers of how adults judge the credibility of everyday sources of scientific information.

Science should save all, not just some.

Discussions around global equity and justice in science typically emphasize the lack of diversity in the editorial boards of scientific journals, inequities in authorship, "parachute research," dominance of the English language, or scientific awards garnered predominantly by Global North scientists. These inequities are pervasive and must be redressed. But there is a bigger problem. The legacy of colonialism in scientific research includes an intellectual property system that favors Global North countries and the big corporations they support. This unfairness shows up in who gets access to the fruits of science and raises the question of who science is designed to serve or save.

Rationalizing risk aversion in science: Why incentives to work hard clash with incentives to take risks.

Scientific research requires taking risks, as the most cautious approaches are unlikely to lead to the most rapid progress. Yet, much funded scientific research plays it safe and funding agencies bemoan the difficulty of attracting high-risk, high-return research projects. Why don't the incentives for scientific discovery adequately impel researchers toward such projects? Here, we adapt an economic contracting model to explore how the unobservability of risk and effort discourages risky research. The model considers a hidden-action problem, in which the scientific community must reward discoveries in a way that encourages effort and risk-taking while simultaneously protecting researchers' livelihoods against the vicissitudes of scientific chance. Its challenge when doing so is that incentives to motivate effort clash with incentives to motivate risk-taking, because a failed project may be evidence of a risky undertaking but could also be the result of simple sloth. As a result, the incentives needed to encourage effort actively discourage risk-taking. Scientists respond by working on safe projects that generate evidence of effort but that don't move science forward as rapidly as riskier projects would. A social planner who prizes scientific productivity above researchers' well-being could remedy the problem by rewarding major discoveries richly enough to induce high-risk research, but in doing so would expose scientists to a degree of livelihood risk that ultimately leaves them worse off. Because the scientific community is approximately self-governing and constructs its own reward schedule, the incentives that researchers are willing to impose on themselves are inadequate to motivate the scientific risks that would best expedite scientific progress.

Disruptive Technologies and Open Science: How Open Should Open Science Be? A 'Third Bioethics' Ethical Framework.

This paper investigates the ethical implications of applying open science (OS) practices on disruptive technologies, such as generative AIs. Disruptive technologies, characterized by their scalability and paradigm-shifting nature, have the potential to generate significant global impact, and carry a risk of dual use. The tension arises between the moral duty of OS to promote societal benefit by democratizing knowledge and the risks associated with open dissemination of disruptive technologies. Van Rennselaer Potter's 'third bioethics' serves as the founding horizon for an ethical framework to govern these tensions. Through theoretical analysis and concrete examples, this paper explores how OS can contribute to a better future or pose threats. Finally, we provide an ethical framework for the intersection between OS and disruptive technologies that tries to go beyond the simple 'as open as possible' tenet, considering openness as an instrumental value for the pursuit of other ethical values rather than as a principle with prima facie moral significance.

Advancing accessible science for low-vision and diverse-needs communities.

Science can often be inaccessible for people with disabilities, including those with low vision or blindness. Below, we hear from Jamie Rossjohn and Erica Tandori regarding the insights and experiences into the establishment of an internship program for people with disabilities and the evolution of Monash Sensory Science-from a one-off exhibition event for blind and low-vision communities to a national and international multisensory, accessible science initiative, championing a more inclusive approach to science communication.

Editorial: For better or for worse? Intended and unintended consequences of science communication.

Recently, more effort has been devoted to ensuring that scientific knowledge can be mobilised to make a positive impact on individuals and society. Scientists are encouraged, and even required, to communicate their findings beyond academic circles - to inform interested groups. However, there can be challenges with language use and communicating concepts; interpreting results; and from time pressure to communicate results rapidly. Here, we discuss intended and unintended consequences of science communication. We emphasise the importance of training to achieve these communication skills and working with non-academic partners - to mitigate potential harm from misinterpreted results and to ensure that science communication is maximally beneficial.

Designing museum exhibits to support the development of scientific thinking in informal learning environments: A university-museum-community partnership.

Our objective is to scaffold the natural behaviors that support scientific thinking and STEM learning in children through museum exhibit design and development. Here, we describe a collaborative research-to-practice initiative called "Designing Museum Exhibits to Support the Development Scientific Thinking in Informal Learning Environments: A University-Museum-Community Partnership," in which we document natural behavior in the context of children's informal learning environments and detail our plans to translate our findings into exhibit development. This initiative is part of a long-standing university (UT Austin, Center for Applied Cognitive Science), museum (Thinkery-Austin Children's Museum), and community (Austin's Early Learner Community) partnership called Thinkery Connect. Our first aim here is to review best practices in STEM exhibit design that fosters scientific thinking. We will then describe the design of a study on exhibit signage to promote scientific thinking development. We will also discuss our plans to develop and evaluate exhibit signage in context. Our long-term objective is to deepen engagement in activities that build scientific thinking for visitors at children's museums like Thinkery, at home, and in the community.

We need better and more PopSci by scientists.

Any scientist knows that to be a good scientist, they must conduct thoughtful research; generate high-quality, verifiable results and analyses; and get them into circulation in the scientific community. However, what often goes underappreciated is that this good science will likely remain ignored by most of the world if one doesn't find a way to get it out beyond the scientific community. Unfortunately, when it comes to making our science accessible, we scientists all too often fall short. And that's when the nonscientist public turn to other nonscientists they can understand. Hence, we find ourselves in a world shaped by a lot of misguided, and often erroneous, information about science.