Erica Stone: Academic Research is Publicly Funded - Why Isn't It Publicly Available? (Transcript)

Erica Stone at TED Talks

Here is the full transcript of author and teacher Erica Stone’s TEDx Talk: Academic Research is Publicly Funded – Why Isn’t It Publicly Available? at TEDxMileHighWomen October 2016 conference.

Listen to the MP3 Audio: Academic research is publicly funded – why isn’t it publicly available by Erica Stone

Erica Stone – Author & Teacher

Do you ever find yourself referencing a study in conversation that you didn’t actually read?

I was having coffee with a friend of mine the other day, and I said, “You know, I read a new study that says coffee reduces the risk of depression in women.” But really, what I read was a tweet.

That said, “A new study says drinking coffee may decrease depression risk in women.”

And that tweet had a link to the “New York Times” blog, where a guest blogger translated the study findings from a “Live Science” article, which got its original information from the Harvard School of Public Health news site, which cited the actual study abstract, which summarized the actual study published in an academic journal. It’s like the six degrees of separation, but with research.

So, when I said I read a study, what I actually read was 59 characters that summarized 10 years of research.

So, when I said I read a study, I was reading fractions of the study that were put together by four different writers that were not the author, before it got to me. That doesn’t seem right.

Erica Stone: Academic Research is Publicly Funded – Why Isn’t It Publicly Available? (Transcript)