Alexandra Freeman

Published 9 months ago, by A. Freeman, S. Dryhurst

How does communicating uncertainty affect people’s reaction to future projections of the effects of COVID-19 and their accuracy?

Communicating uncertainties around future projections

Published last year, by P. Hsing, J. Thompson, A. Freeman

Interviews with research infrastructure managers on their perceptions of Octopus

Interviews with research infrastructure managers at various institutions, to understand if and how Octopus may fit into their offering for researchers.

Real World Application

The real world applications of findings about the current research culture

This research suggests that open research publication platforms such as Octopus could be an important mechanism for achieving various reforms, but need to be supported by those who carry out assessments for funding or for career advancement. For example: Outreach and education about Octopus (and other similar platforms) would alleviate a substantial barrier to shar...

Published last year, by P. Hsing, A. Freeman, T. Fellows, M. Munafo, J. Thompson

Interpretation

Interpretation of survey and interviews: might Octopus help researchers produce high quality, open research?

Interpretation of interviews and survey on research culture.

Published last year, by P. Hsing, A. Freeman, M. Munafo, J. Thompson

Published last year, by P. Hsing, A. Freeman, J. Thompson

Survey to help identify whether Octopus might help researchers produce high quality, open research

Survey to assess researchers' perception of the current research culture and barriers to open, high quality research

Published last year, by A. Freeman, P. Hsing, M. Tukanova, J. Thompson, M. Munafo

Could Octopus help researchers produce high quality, open research?

The theory of how Octopus aims to help encourage open and high quality research.

Published last year, by M. Tukanova, P. Hsing, A. Freeman, T. Fellows, J. Thompson, M. Munafo

How can we overcome the barriers to researchers producing high quality, open research?

A summary of the known issues with incentives in scholarly publishing.

Published last year, by M. Tukanova, P. Hsing, A. Freeman, T. Fellows, J. Thompson, M. Munafo

How can we help researchers share their work in a way that is most useful for others?

A summary of the known barriers to open research practices in academic research.

Published last year, by S. Dryhurst, J. Kerr, A. Freeman

Method to test the effects of different formats of communication of indirect uncertainty around the COVID-19 R number on a public audience

A method to test the effects of different verbal/numeric and graphical communications of uncertainty around the Covid-19 R number (pre-registration)

Published last year, by S. Dryhurst, A. Freeman

How might the format used to communicate uncertainty around the R value of COVID-19 affect audiences?

A review of what is known about the effects of communicating uncertainty around the R value of an epidemic, or similar numbers.

Published last year, by S. Dryhurst, A. Freeman, E. So

How to communicate uncertainty around the R number of COVID-19?

‘R’ is a key figure communicated throughout the pandemic for decision-making, but is always uncertain. How is that uncertainty perceived when communicated?

Interpretation

Interpretation: what the public already know, want to know and need to know, about their personal risks from COVID-19

This Interpretation is based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721 The interviews and the survey responses combined help give us an overall view of the public’s information needs regarding their personal COVID-19 risk, as of July 2020.The majority of participants clearly showed a desire for quantitative information about COVID-19 (much of which...

Published last year, by A. Freeman, J. Kerr, A. Lawrence, G. Recchia, C. Schneider, S. Dryhurst, L. Finikarides, G. Luoni

This Problem is based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721Numbers on their own do not convey a perception of quantity—they need to be given context, particularly when the numbers are small [1]. However, the choice of the context (such as comparators for the risk) can clearly influence the perception of a risk [2-5]. Choosing contextual informat...

Can we help people understand their personal likelihood of dying from COVID-9 if they catch it by putting it in the context of other risks?

Published last year, by A. Freeman

This Problem is based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721One of the first decisions a communicator needs to make is ‘what is the aim of this communication?’ Communication messages lie on a continuum from a purely persuasive design (e.g. many public health messages) where the desired outcome is behavioural change; to purely informative (e.g. in...

Should communicators communicate people’s personal risk from COVID-19 in such a way as to purely inform them of their risk, or to encourage them to take action?

Published last year, by A. Freeman

This Method is based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721 A combination of in depth qualitative interviews and large-scale quantitative surveys are ideal for gaining insights into people’s understanding of a topic such as their risk from COVID-19, and their information needs.Quantitative surveys can give broad insights into opinions across a po...

Method for online surveys to find out what the public already know, want to know and need to know, about their personal risks from COVID-19

Published 2 years ago, by A. Freeman, C. Schneider, J. Kerr, G. Recchia, S. Dryhurst

This Hypothesis/Theoretical rationale is based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721One method of approaching risk communication is the ‘mental models’ approach, whereby researchers use both qualitative and quantitative methods to build up an understanding of the audience’s intuitive model of causality in a situation, as well as the probabilitie...

Finding out what the public already know, and want to know, about their personal risks from COVID-19

Published 2 years ago, by A. Freeman, J. Kerr, G. Recchia, S. Dryhurst, C. Schneider, A. Lawrence

Results

Results of testing the effects of different numerical formats on people’s perception of their risk of dying from COVID-19

These Results are based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721The data from this experiment is available in the Open Science Framework repository: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/AUF8H Survey 4.This study was approved by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee at the University of Cambridge (PRE.2020.070).The survey was carried out online, with...

Published 2 years ago, by A. Freeman, J. Kerr, C. Schneider, G. Recchia, S. Dryhurst

This Hypothesis/Theoretical Rationale is based on work published in: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201721 Several studies have shown that the format in which numbers are presented, such as percentages (e.g. 0.5%), natural frequencies (e.g. 5 in 1000), and ‘1 in X’ (e.g. 1 in 200), can affect people’s comprehension and perception of the magnitude of that number. For...

Investigating the effects of the format that numbers are presented in, on people’s perception of the risk of dying from COVID-19

Published 2 years ago, by A. Freeman