Democratisation of scientific advice: Authors advocate getting dressed for public performance, not nakedness is bad

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.602-a

BMJ 2005;330:602 (12 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.602-a

Letter

Democratisation of scientific advice

Authors advocate getting dressed for public performance, not nakedness is bad

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Rather than arguing that nakedness is bad likeAbbasi,¹ in our article on the democratisation of science weurge transparency advocates to be specific about the body partsthat should be displayed publicly.²

As scientific advisory councils find themselves at the intersectionsof science and society, they necessarily transgress the boundariesof science. This makes them vulnerable to the politicisationof their work. Sound scientific advice is urgently needed ina time where our societies are overwhelmed with new technologies.Therefore, we think that science advisory boards do well intaking utmost care in shaping their relations with policy actorsand the citizenry.

The experience of the Health Council of the Netherlands in dealingwith scientific elements (colliding knowledge claims, etc),can be inspiring to develop methods and procedures to allowsocietal elements into the advisory process.³ Transparency aboutone's arguments, allowing your readership to join you in . . . [Full text of this article]

Roland Bal, assistant professor

r.bal@bmg.eur.nl Department of Health Policy and Management, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands

Wiebe E Bijker, professor of technology and society studies, Ruud Hendriks, assistant professor of philosophy

Faculty of Arts and Culture, University of Maastricht, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands