Science in Public Policy Survey (Survey)
Survey Results
1. Are you a
A) Ballot
Method:Multiple Selection
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Maximum Selections: [1]
Descriptions:Please choose one
Number of Choices:6
B) Results Spread
Statistics
Total1.00
N5
Table Sorted By Total
Choices / Totalscientist / 5
policy maker / 0
administrator / 0
lobbyist / 0
activist / 0
member of the general public / 0
Results Chart (1. Are you a)
2. Please give us contact information. Email or phone is best for us.
A) Ballot
Method:Open-Ended
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Maximum Number of Characters: [12288]
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. Leretta Smith
office phone: 701-231-8939
Email:
2.
3.
231-8996
4.
231 7692
5.
3. If you are a scientist, please indicate your rank or role on a research team?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. Principal investigator - Professor
2. PI
3. Professor, Project leader
4. Associate Professor
PI
5. Co-PI
4. Is your age between 20 and 30, 30 and 50, 50 and 70, or above?
A) Ballot
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Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. between 30 and 50
2. 50 & 70
3. 50 and 70
4. 30 and 50
5. 30 and 50
5. Are you male or female?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. female
2. F
3. Male
4. Female
5. female
6. Where do you live (City, State, Nation)?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. Dilworth, MN, USA
2. Fargo, ND, US
3. Fargo, ND
4. Fargo, ND, USA
5. Moorhead, MN, USA
7. What ethnic group are you a part of?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. White
2. White, non-hispanic
3. White
4. European
5. Caucasian
8. What country are you a citizen in?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. USA
2. US
3. US
4. Ireland
5. USA
9. Indicate your level of involvement in public issues (very active, interested only seldom active, interested but passive, only occasionally interested, generally uninvolved)?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. interested only seldom active
2. interested only seldom active
3. Interested only, seldom active
4. Have been active and still am
5. Very active
10. How would you characterize your attitude toward science (trusting, generally trusting, ignorant of it, cynical, adversarial)?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. generally trusting
2. trusting
3. Generally trusting
4. Trusing of most of it
5. Generally trusting depending on the research methods used and the funding. I don't like when politics interrupts science, such as the current debate over stem cell research.
I am generally skeptical of scientists that report on research using exaggerated claims as to the merits or value of their research. I think it's important to keep discoveries in perspective as science is a spiral process -- new discoveries are always building on old discoveries.
11. What experience have you had in advising decision makers who are making public policy?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. Not much experience from the scientific side - but from a lobbying standpoint, I have found it difficult to sway public policy
2. minimal to none
3. Direct involvement with policy makers in regards to invasive species management and law.
4. Consulting with the FDA, USDA and Lobbying groups
5. Not really any.
12. What experience have you had in publicizing your research to the general public?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
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1. Still working at getting something published
2. several media interviews for print & broadcast media over 20 years
3. Very actively involved in the publication of extension bulletins, working with ag communication to release radio and video reports, working with local, state, and regional media to discuss invasive species.
4. Published researcher and through interviews
5. Some past research has been reported in the Forum. Also, some projects that I have worked on have been reported in the High Plains Reader, Fargo Forum, and FOX News. Much of my research centers on participatory action with people who are immediately effected by a situation. I don't know if you can call this research or activism. It becomes research when I apply an empirical analysis to the methods and results. This is something I want to accomplish as my work progresses. I would like to publish some papers in the Communication field around my activism.
13. What projects have you worked on (including present ones) that could be used to advise decision makers about public policies?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. Student safety survey
2. 1. hearing loss among farmers,
2. providing safe play areas for children living on farms,
3. providing childcare for farm families
3. Control of leafy spurge.
Control of the knapweed species.
Control of Canada thistle.
Control of purple loosestrife (lythrum).
Control of saltcedar.
4. Baytril withdrawal;
Issues of food safety with the USDA FSIS
5. Growing Up Healthy in the Red RiverValley: Reducing Pesticide Exposure in Children
Immigrant/Refugee Community Garden Project
14. Why is this project one that is of importance in public policy?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. It could drastically change how emergency situations are handled on campus as well as in the larger community
2. 1. hearing loss is highly prevalent among this worker group, preventable, and adversely affects quality of life;
2. many children are killed and injured on farms annually; lack of safe play areas are a contributing factor;
3. many children are killed and injured on farms annually; lack of childcare that meets the needs of farm families is a contributing factor
3. State and federal laws require control of non-native or invasive species. Land managers need to know how to control these species using chemical, mechanical, or biological methods. This work also supports the addition or removal of certain species from the state noxious weed list.
4. Changed the course of the use of the drug in animla health
5. Because of the lack of information about pesticide exposure in children many people are starting to apply the Precautionary Principle in this situation to public policy to save future generations. Our project was a photovoice project where we examined women's attitudes toward pesticide use by asking them to photograph their environment. We are putting together an exhibit of the photographs to show in our communities and to policy makers.
15. How are the findings of your study likely to reach public policy decision makers?
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Total Number of Respondents (N):5
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1. By producing reports and sharing the results with these decision makers
2. Not likely that it will, unless policy makers happen to see/hear media coverage or read professional literature
3. Either in personal conversations or from letters and e-mail.
4. Resarch publications and presentations
5. Through the exhibits and public forums we will organize.
16. Are your findings likely to make it to the public in general?
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B) Text Responses
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1. I hope so
2. Very possibly, as media often publish results in popular press (print and broadcast)
3. Yes, often this information is released to the public. See question 12.
4. some will if other agencies and public groups pick up on a paper published
5. Yes. We are planning a policy forum and media will be included.
17. How might your findings influence decision makers or the public?
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B) Text Responses
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1. To enact processes which safeguard students and the general public
2. 1. Changing attitudes to this health problem from inevitable to preventable.
2. Increase or maintain funding for future research on this topic (or to public agency sponsoring this research).
3. Increase awareness of the prevalence and distribution and determininants of this health problem
4. Increase awareness of the availablity of effective methods to limit/control/eliminate this health problem.
5. Increase funding to agencies charged with intervening with this problem.
5. Consider authoring/sponsoring/supporting regulations designed to reduce exposure to this health hazard.
3. Will help them decide if a certain species should be put on the noxious weed list. Also, in some cases commercial interests such as greenhouses and nurseries will be required to stop the sale and reproduction of these plants. Once on the list, a land manager is required to control that particular species.
4. The data has previously provided proof/ evidence
5. We would like to see some policy developed around:
Informing citizens about mosquito fogging on city streets fogging so people can close their windows and put any toys away left outside.
Figuring out ways to work with pesticide applicators and farmers to reduce the spread of the pesticide.
Developing and funding educational endeavors to inform the public about the things individuals can do to reduce pesticide exposure.
Some land use issues for public housing in the Fargo/Moorhead area around community gardens and the use of indoor pesticides. We listened to the immigrant women express their dismay at some of the outright disregard for their rights in public housing and we have some photographs of public housing workers leaving bug killer on the kitchen counter next to food!
Some land use issues to support small, emerging vegetable farmers. Encourage tax credits to farmers who lease small portions of their land to people who want to grow vegetables.
Promotion of locally, grown organic foods.
18. How would you characterize the relationship between the sphere of scientific research and public policy?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
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1. I do think there is a disconnect when it comes to research being put into practice in the decision making process
2. Policy should be based on science, as opposed to tradition, false beliefs, or anecdotes. Science informs the policy-development process.
3. In my area they work very closely together and have trust in each other. In many areas, that is not so, especially when Hollywood personalities get involved and state their personal perceptions with no scientific data to support them. That makes it hard to get the scientifically supported view point brought forward.
4. some is trusting other parts are questioned
5. I think it's a good relationship in general. I think scientists are a little busy and perhaps shy about getting their work out to the public. Actually, many scientists are just too busy to publicize or share their work with policy makers. I think many scientists wait until their research arrives in peer reviewed journals. By that time, the data is old and the problems are much larger. I saw a presenter two weeks ago lay out the time it takes from the research to publication to practice -- sometimes it can take 17 years! I think one of the jobs of a university is to publicize the scientists in their institutions work to the general public and policy makers.
19. How would you characterize the relationship between the sphere of scientific research and public opinion?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. The public is often more aware of what research has concluded, even though it may not be used to implement public policy in general.
2. Research can inform educational processes (including public press), which in turn, influences public opinion.
3. Not a real good connection. Scientific data are never directly presented to the public as a scientist would read them in a journal. They are paraphrased by a reporter who sometimes does an good job and sometimes does a very poor job of representing science to the public. The public is and should be suspicious of the "latest findings" heard on the nightly news.
4. here there are greater divides on issues
5. I think a large portion of the public is generally positive about science (especially here in the U.S.). Still, many are skeptical. I asked my students yesterday if they believed all things are "knowable" (maybe not now but in 50 generations). One student said things change so rapidly that we probably are unable to know everything ( a more pragmatic response). But, I think most of my students considered the spiritual element of knowledge, that some things are unknowable because of some sort of creator. This was even after I described the notion of science as an activity shaped like a spiral. So, I think the general public believes some things are unexplained by practical means. So, when new discoveries are made that refute our old ways of thinking about God as the creator and inventor, much skepticism exists. I think (and this is true for me) some of the discoveries or theories about physics and the nature of the universe are very hard for the general public to grasp.
20. What factors other than scientific findings do you think should influence decision makers?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
Total Number of Respondents (N):5
Number of responses to this question (n):5
1. Similar situational responses by other decision makers when confronted with research findings and how those were implemented
2. Ethics, economics, situational and practical considerations.
3. A good dose of common sense. They need to think about what effects their decisions will have on the general public, the environment, the economy, etc. Too often they are only concerned about what effect it will have in the polls.
4. Public opining - whether it be right or not
5. MMhh, this is a hard question.
Okay, so the way science goes (depending on funding and methods) you can find conflicting discoveries about things. So, if the science is explained well to policymakers about why this study is more valid than another study -- or maybe even worse, both studies are valid -- policymakers are goingt to fall back on their ideas of what is "right" or "wrong." So, I believe we need to use ethics to make decisions as well. Okay, so maybe we don't all agree on various ethical principles (beneficence for example is going beyond just not doing harm -- it proposes to actively make things better) or maybe you believe in a more formalistic (means justifies the end) vs. consequential (means does not justify the end) approach. So, applying ethics can also be contradictory -- but absolutely necessary.
I believe now with our environment in absolute peril, we need to apply the some sort of precautionary principle -- although this is also controversial among scientists. This principle states that we should be cautious even before science is definitive. For many years we have been living under the Delaney Clause -- which sets acceptable limits for harmful substances - cost:benefit analysis (maleficence).
21. What factors other than scientific knowledge do you think should influence popular belief or opinion on issues?
A) Ballot
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B) Text Responses
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1. The same as above
2. Ethics, economics, situational and practical considerations.
3. Depends on the issue. Often professionals working in the area should be consulted for practical on the ground view points.
4. evidence
5. Just like policy makers, the public needs to be well informed and not lied to. I think our population is in extreme peril because of the gap between the knowledgeable and unknowledgeable, and between those who care and those who don't care. Some people really don't care...is that okay? No, it's not okay. So, we need to develop safety nets for our people so they can care about what is happening in the larger world rather than only having to be concerned with their world in which they are just trying to survive. And, then their are the rich people that don't care, and the rich people that do care. I'm not sure about these people because I don't travel in their circles. But, there was something going around about Al Gore's massive house and how it was very inefficient versus George Bush's ranch house and how efficient it was (should I even believe this -- it was for sure passed around by conservatives). Okay, so now I'm rambling. I think the general public needs to ask this question that I heard someone ask the other day, "How are the children?" If their children are not thriving, then they should be mad and take action to make change.