GRAP 2017 – Quantifying media bias in scientific reporting (01-Gill)

Project Title: Quantifying media bias in scientific reporting

Faculty / Researcher Mentor: Gill (Primary), Fox and Thea (secondary)

Description Statement:

Media depictions of scientific publications are often criticized for overstating the strength of relationships, direction of causality, and the magnitude of effect sizes compared with what is represented in the source article.  But this raises two questions: 1) are such criticism justified? and 2) if so, can we systematically quantify the degree of mismatch and factors that lead to over/under statements about the source data?

Scope of Work:

We are looking to engage a team of 8-10 students on this project.  The team will be responsible for developing a rigorous methodology to study this issue, defining the range of domains for measurements, defining a rubric for how these domains are rated, and then executing, analyzing and reporting the results of this experiment.  This is intended to lead to at least one scientific publication with the students as the lead authors.

Minimum skills desired:

Second semester students are preferred, and those with further experience or course work in epi/biostats or related skills will be given higher priority

Time / Date Expectations:

The project will begin as soon as the team is assembled. We estimate this could take 3-6 months to complete the data collection and analysis.  If possible, we are hoping to include discussion of this project and its findings in an upcoming edition of The Free Associations Podcast.

Any special application request:

Ability to work well in group setting; analytic skills; resourcefulness; creativity; ability to organize tasks and execute in coordinated fashion; at least one student should have strong skills in project management.

Number of Positions:  10

APPLY:  http://www.bu.edu/ghblast/apply-for-grap-opportunity-with-dr-gill/