A UAB study investigates for the first time watchdog science journalism in Ibero-America, an essential practice to combat fraud, abuse and corporate interference in science.
Watchdog science journalism has become a fundamental tool to counter scientific malpractices, such as publication fraud, abuse, and political and corporate manipulation of science.
A study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which has mapped for the first time the rise of this type of journalism in Ibero-America, through interviews with 15 journalists from the region who have investigated prominent cases of bad science. The work, the first to study this practice in the region, has just been published in the journal Media and Communication.
Integrity crisis
Scientific integrity faces a growing variety of challenges: the use of AI to generate false publications, plagiarism, manipulation of figures and data, political and corporate interference in research, sexual abuse at the university, and so on.
These are minority cases, but not anecdotal ones: the integrity crisis is related to perverse incentives, such as the pressure on researchers to publish more and more academic articles (summed up in the expression "publish or perish").
"Faced with a systemic problem, the solution also has to be systemic. Watchdog science journalism is part of it, as it acts as a disincentive to bad practices," says Michele Catanzaro, a researcher in journalism at the UAB and the Institute for the History of Science (iHC-UAB), and co-author of the study.
15 journalists against bad science
In the paper, the authors have developed a methodology to identify a sample of 15 Ibero-American journalists (listed below) who have investigated high-profile cases of malpractice: from the purchase of affiliations by Saudi universities to sexual abuse in Argentine research centers, to interference in scientific publications by tobacco and pharmaceutical companies in Latin America.
"The work of these professionals points to a change in Ibero-American journalism, which historically has had weaker traditions of investigation and coverage of science compared to other regions of the world," says Luiz Peres, a researcher in Journalism at the UAB and co-author of the work.
The work identifies the challenges faced by watchdog science journalism in Ibero-America: political interference; lack of transparency from administrations; legal, virtual and physical threats; lack of resources; and mental exhaustion. It also uncovers journalists' strategies to expose the evils of science and avoid harming public trust in it at the same time; and to relate to scientists, who are sources and objects of scrutiny at the same time.
The challenges are multiple, but the work shows that watchdog science journalism is effective, resulting in consequences such as resignations or new regulations. The elements that favour it are regional collaboration networks, independent digital media, international media specialized in science, and some traditional media committed to journalistic values.
Reference article: Catanzaro, M., & Peres-Neto, L. (2026). The emerging practices of watchdog science journalists in Ibero-America. Media and Communication, 14.
