Dr. Robert T. Lackey, Oregon State University, argues that, for scientists, without a clear separation between providing policy-neutral science and advocating for personal or employer policy preferences, scientists collectively risk being categorized as yet one of many policy advocacy groups. Worse, as a profession, scientists collectively will be considered policy advocates who present information in ways that sound like science, read like science, are presented by individuals who cloak themselves in the accouterments of science, but who are actually offering policy advocacy masquerading as science.
