Who is Doing the Research?
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 by Mike CronkArchived from “The Paw Report:” Issue #10, April
If you follow politics or advertising, you know that it is possible to find backing for any opinion you want—just design the question then test or experiment in such a way that you get the results you want. In researching different topics for my own knowledge as well as sharing in the newsletter, I have to be very careful of my sources. When writing about nutrition, I don’t value a study conducted by the Purina dog food company nearly as much as that of an independent source that doesn’t have financial ties to the outcome. A veterinary association or the government department of health are sources I would consider more reliable. That’s not to say that I don’t read the findings of the Purina research, I just make sure I look at other resources to see how it all adds up. The more varied the sources are, the more likely you are to get an accurate picture. So when you need articles about pet care, be sure to see who is doing the research and what the organization’s stakes are in the outcome of that research.
Case in point—we have a host of scientists telling us global warming has been influenced by our behavior, yet there are also climatologists out there that think it is a natural cycle and they have graduate degrees in their field as well. The issue has become political—it is divided along party lines with Democrats often believing in human-influenced global warming and Republicans believing in natural climate change. Who is doing what research, what are the financial stakes and what does politics have to do with science?