This article focuses on "uncertainty"--ways in which scientists recognize and analyze limits in their studies and conclusions. We distinguish uncertainty from (un)trustworthiness--ways in which scientific reports can be affected by conscious deception or unconscious bias. Scientific journal articles typically include analyses and…

Purposefully publishing a fraudulent scholarly paper is considered research misconduct and never tolerated in academia. True scholars work hard to create and publish work in legitimate ways. However, fraudulent publishers--companies that solicit and quickly publish research papers without review or quality assurances that evaluate, judge, and…

Scientific misinformation and disinformation, proliferating via the internet and social media, are now significant problems. Proposed solutions vary substantially. Here, I describe a set of prospective benchmarks--10 competencies--that seem essential for reorienting science education to address the challenge. They include, first, elements of…

According to the cliché, it is not what one says so much as how one says it. In the business world, those words ring particularly true. How one presents information can influence all forms of business decisions, from level of investment to expansion to downsizing and everything in between. This brings up significant questions relating to the…

For teachers and librarians helping students navigate the world of online information, the rise of fake news has created new challenges for information literacy instruction. Helping students find, evaluate, and use credible sources of online information can be more difficult than ever in the current era of "fake news", "alternative…

In recent years--and especially since the 2016 presidential election--numerous media organizations, newspapers, and policy advocates have made efforts to help Americans become more careful consumers of the information they see online. In K-12 and higher education, the main approach has been to provide students with checklists they can use to…

Reflecting on the mediascape since the 2016 elections, it's tempting to think that "fake news" is strictly a twenty-first century phenomenon--designed by webmasters as clickbait for shadowy networks seeking power and profit. This article will explore some ways in which teachers can use the analytical tools of news literacy to unearth the…

Alarmed by the increasing frequency of press reports on corrupt practices in the higher education sector, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the International Quality Group of the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA/CIQG) joined forces to convene an expert meeting in Washington, DC, on 30/31…

Photographs used to be, for the most part, very trustworthy evidence of the visual truth. With the current ready availability of affordable digital photography and image-altering software, that is no longer the case. To be fully technologically literate, today's students should know something about the history of photo manipulation and the current…

This article describes analyses of three contexts (civic, business, and military) in which understandings of intellectual property differ from those taught in the schools. In each of these contexts, it is possible to document specific examples of unattributed material that would be considered to violate most academic plagiarism policies. Yet in…

This article offers lessons from the David Irving trial. These lessons about Holocaust denial allow educators to identify how deniers violate certain scholarly tenets. This also serves as a safeguard against legitimizing deniers' efforts, while also reinforcing important principles of historical inquiry. (Contains 11 notes.)

Reports that Ellsworth Collings faked data and misrepresented his research in a 1923 study that became a hallmark of progressive education. "An Experiment with a Project Curriculum," supposedly documented a group of high school students' independent efforts at studying an outbreak of typhoid. Collings seriously misrepresented his input.…

Discusses the historical validity of "The Hitler Diaries" and other historical forgeries. Maintains that forgeries and other hoaxes will continue to be part of human history. Questions why many people seem to need "historical revelations." (CFR)

Top officials at Enron abused their power and privileges, manipulated information, engaged in inconsistent treatment of internal and external constituencies, put their own interests above those of their employees and the public, and failed to exercise proper oversight or shoulder responsibility for ethical failings. Followers were all too quick to…