Ricerca

Distrust in science and the spread of pseudoscientific theories appears to be one of the main factors threatening the freedom of science in modern Western democracies. This article discusses how due to the CoVid-19 pandemic this danger may even increase. In particular, the article highlights how certain behaviours of members of the scientific community may contribute to the spread of anti-scientific attitudes in society. The author analyses which strategies of action, especially within the scientific community, can be used to contrast such a tendency and points out that, regardless of the strategy chosen, the fight against pseudoscience requires a deep reflection on the problem of the “demarcation”, a key issue of the philosophy of science, which has been neglected in recent decades.

This paper investigates the further and multiple repercussions of the results of the Research Quality Assessment (VQR), which could affect the freedom of scientific research activity, influencing its methods, object, degree of depth and dissemination channels. The paper will distinguish between effects that affect institutions and departments as a whole, and effects that directly affect the authors of the research products evaluated. The analysis will then focus in particular on the relationship between the results of the VQR and the classification of the A-class scientific journals in Italy, highlighting the potential distorting effects both in terms of greater or lesser accessibility to the A-class journals by contributions from authors who do not participate in the VQR, and in terms of research topics.