Confidence: Calibrating Trust in Science

Systematic reviews call for improved strategies of evaluating and communicating the degree of certainty and quality of a given body of scientific information. Drawing on environmental assessment projects, the paper argues, that building, promoting and maintaining trust in scientific methodology and outcomes, first of all, is a necessary prerequisite of scientific practice itself. Especially, as the paper shall illustrate, when the systematic review process expands across multiple disciplines, and brings authors from a broad range of research traditions to the table. In 2010 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international body for assessing the science related to climate change, introduced a revised process of evaluating the degree of certainty in key findings. Drawing on the growing attention towards the reporting of confidence levels, the paper explores recent frameworks in large-scale assessment projects and their merit in calibrating trust in the sciences.