Communicating science with integrity entails effective and transparent communication of scientific information to decision-makers." We propose a new approach to do so, without impacting existing scientific communications.
Scientific integrity is vital to the nation’s future economic and national security, and “communicating science with integrity entails effective and transparent communication of scientific information to decision-makers, the media, and the American people.” (The White House, 2022).
Scientists predominantly write for other scientists, as doing so is vitally important to scientific progression. They have not traditionally viewed policymakers as one of their audiences, making it more difficult for this important audience to properly understand the basics and potential ramifications of their work. Third parties often step into this void, attempting to explain scientific findings to policy communities even if they do not have the wisdom or desire to do so accurately. This can lead to policies being enacted based on false evidence, which can have negative ramifications for both the nation and the future direction of scientific inquiry.
To help ensure scientific integrity within national debates and policy development, scientists need to ensure that their new discoveries are properly understood by policy audiences – without negatively impacting scientist-to-scientist communications. In this paper, MITRE introduces the concept of a “policy wrapper” document that can be published adjacent to technical publications but explains the scientific findings in a manner that is easy for policymakers to understand and leverage.