About

Our first mission is to help create an Internet where users will have access to scientifically sound and trustworthy information. We also provide feedback to editors and journalists about the credibility of information published by their outlets.

Our mission is pedagogical: we strive to explain whether and why information is or is not consistent with the science. We are nonpartisan and apply the same methodology to claims made in a variety of media outlets, as well as exposing claims that either contradict or over-hype science. We believe it is scientists’ civic duty to better inform our fellow citizens in our area of expertise.

The Science Feedback association is a not-for-profit organisation registered in France whose mission is defined in its status as to improve the credibility of science-related information online, in the media and on social media. The association notably acts through:

• the organising of scientists’ response to influential information by verifying facts and scientific theories,
• the writing of pedagogical content and critical commentary of science media coverage,
• the development of numerical services as well as contributions to raising awareness about misinformation to tackle its negative impacts on democratic societies.

Our reviews are written by editors who are scientists or science journalists and abide by strict editorial standards. Editors rely on the best available evidence, notably the peer-reviewed scientific literature and scientists who contribute to our analyses (reviewers). Reviewers are chosen for their domain expertise, notably verified by having recently published articles in top-tier peer-reviewed science journals, and are asked to conform to high quality community standards.

• Meet our team and advisors
• Meet our reviewers contributing to Climate Feedback and to Health Feedback
• Read our community standards

Board of trustees

The association is governed by its board of trustees, which is currently composed of the following members:

• Vincent Cristia, Treasurer
• Erwan Ledoux, VP Technology
• Christelle Perrin, Secretary
• Emmanuel Vincent, President

The board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of Science Feedback and do not influence its editorial decisions, except for Emmanuel Vincent who is also Executive Director of the Science Feedback publication.

You can find here the organisation’s bylaws and the publications related to the organisation on the Official Journal (creation, modification).

We invite scientists with relevant expertise to comment on media articles that contain science-based information, adding contextual information and highlighting factual inaccuracies and faulty reasoning where they exist. Science Feedback editors provide a clearly stated summary of the scientists’ comments.

To complete the analysis, scientists evaluate claims and articles and provide a credibility score based on accuracy, logic, objectivity, and factual precision—giving readers an overall guide to the scientific credibility of the article.

• Learn more about our process and our guidelines to evaluate the scientific credibility of claims and articles

Science Feedback editors provide a clearly stated summary of the scientists’ comments. All reviews are archived on our site, creating a useful resource for anyone to easily compare and contrast the credibility of different news sources, and promoting the most reliable sources of information and insightful journalism.

Science Feedback is paving the way for a new kind of fact-checking, crowdsourced directly from scientists with relevant expertise, providing in-depth analysis on a whole article, as well as “fact-checking” a number of claims at once.

Beyond checking the facts, special attention is given to checking the quality of the logic and reasoning to analyze and expose logical flaws and rhetorical manipulation.

Science Feedback is supported primarily by volunteers and individual donors.

We are working in partnership with other organisations and academic institutions:

• Read more about our partners, funders and donors
• Read more about our standards to maintain editorial independence
• Support our mission: Make a donation today!

Science Feedback’s analyses have been featured in many respected news outlets.

Health Feedback is a member of the World Health Organization’s Vaccine Safety Net, a network of websites that provide reliable information on vaccine safety.