Importance of correct Research Representation in a world of misrepresentation by Michela Flood

Oct 23, 2024

5 min read

Generally, the importance of accuracy while producing content and research should be a well-rounded, neutral ideology that is always ensured and checked. When relaying information, a truthful basis should serve as the primary priority, either after gathering one's research findings or producing research from another source, the content should always be ensured as truthful and honest before publication.

Not only is accurate research important for consumers who are reading the content and believing it to be sincere, but for authors and releasers themselves, as providing accurate information is immensely important to ensure credibility is maintained.

Writers and journalists should serve as accurate, reliable, and trusted sources, a feat that is likely lessened when produced, analyzed, and redirected research is inaccurate or misrepresented. With an election less than two weeks away, and a technology driven world, its time to look up from devices and make sure claims, research, and information is being correctly analyzed and relayed.

A workshop held at the university's Bird Library focused on tactics and strategies for the growing trend of misrepresentation in research.

“Today what I am doing is a workshop on the misappropriation and misrepresentation of research, so this is a growing problem, in some ways it has always been around, but it is something that goes along with the increase in misinformation and disinformation that's going around,” Winn Wasson said before the workshop on Oct. 1, 2024.

Inaccurate research is when the research being conveyed is simply not true or reliable. The difference with misappropriation and misrepresentation of research is “the public understanding of the research, that is the issue,” said Winn Wasson, the Social Science librarian at Syracuse University.

“The issue has gotten bigger because a lot of time research gets out there, it gets in the media and social media and the public misunderstands what the research is about,” Wasson said.

To student's and staff's advantage, Syracuse University offers a plethora of platforms, and workshops that will give students a better understanding of how to correctly interpret and analyze research, to avoid any issues, and bring awareness and preparation for situations.

For students and staff, knowing how to correctly represent research, and have personal research correctly represented is immensely important, because of the negative outcomes that can emerge from wrongful interpretations.

“There are researchers that are sometimes bullied and threatened because their research oftentimes gets misappropriated and misrepresented by folks that have an ideological agenda, a political agenda, and those researchers find that their research has gone viral, but not in a way that they have wanted it to,” Wasson said.

However worrisome the state of misinformation, misrepresenting, and misappropriation of research can be, simply understanding how to utilize certain resources and tactics, can help immensely.

“I think the goals of misinformation and disinformation in general, there are two that come to my mind, the first is to show discontent and distrust among people, that's the one we often hear about a lot, it causes people to distrust each other, authority figures (however their defined) and another thing I don't think gets enough of a look, is that it's also a goal of misinformation and disinformation to cause people to withdraw from active citizenship, this idea that I'm not sure who to believe, so I'm just going to stay out of it,” Wasson said.

Throughout the workshop, Wasson continued to reveal a range of resources and strategies to avoid such situations with research. This included the idea of monitoring one's field which prioritizes bibliometrics and alert features of different bases, which can diversify and validate research by navigating to a plethora of sources. Also included was the idea of monitoring one's work, which would then entail using individual research profiles to track citations and downloads. A feature that is available on certain databases and institutions.

Zeynep Saka, a master's student in the Language, Literature, and Linguistics department at Syracuse, attended the workshop and was satisfied with the outcome of her learning.

“There are some practical measurements we can take to prevent such incidents like tracking,” Saka said.

Valuing the concept of allies, and having people to connect with if a situation of research misinterpretation occurs, as well as this tactic of finding a grain of truth, and seeing where honesty, which can take away misunderstanding, may lie was prioritized during the workshop.

“The discussion lit a light in my mind, you need to be careful how you deliver information, it's not only about correcting the misleading part or wrong information, even if you give out the correct thing, through informed research and factual information, the way you present it and deliver it to people also matters,” Saka said.

During the workshop, Wasson stressed that it was not intended to rehabilitate extremists, but having allies and supervisors or authority for support in the event of wrong representation is beneficial.

“I learned that we need to be careful when we receive such reactions regarding what we study or research, when people try to use some part of the idea or some part of the information, we need to refer to the correct part, and state that yes, that part is true, but we also need to refute the misleading part,” Saka said.

However, wrongful information and misinformation do not lie within research alone, simple tasks of correctly citing and representing work is an issue many students run into, a vastly important fleet because when work is not being portrayed correctly, additional issues will arise.

According to the National Institute of Health: Manuscript Referencing Errors and Their Impact on Shaping Current Evidence, several studies on references in a multitude of scientific disciplines have an error rate of 25%-54%. Enhancing the idea that many do not know how to correctly reference.

Sarah Beckage, a senior year student at Syracuse, studying Biology, Neuroscience, and Psychology, did not attend the workshop, however, she has relied on services at the library for support, being aware of the importance of correctly referencing and crediting work.

“Being a triple major it's really important I give the right credentials to whose work I am representing, so that my professors, and people reading my papers, know where my citations are coming from,” Beckage said.

The SU library has a range of assistance and resources including databases, journals, and an open-access institutional repository: SURFACE, all under Syracuse University Libraries resources to assist students in their research attempts.

“I’m hoping they come away with knowledge that this is an issue, and as I said how they can deal with it,” said Wasson.

Knowing the importance of correct representation, and the steps to take if research is misrepresented is hugely beneficial allowing individuals to focus on their learning and innovations rather than mishaps.