A qualitative study of the roles and responsibilities of academic and journalistic publishing in social and behavioral genomics

Social and behavioral genomics (SBG) is the study of whether and how genetic differences between individuals correlate with differences in behaviors such as cognitive ability and outcomes such as occupational status. The field is the subject of staunch academic debate and controversy, in part because of a long history in which claims regarding genetic differences in human behavior have been used for social harm. Like any scientific domain, the conduct and translation of SBG is shaped by academic and journalistic publishing. Academic journals issue editorial guidelines and policies that inform how researchers shape and present their studies. Journalists select and report on academic studies for public audiences. Thus, these two groups play a potentially important role in how SBG research is conducted and communicated, especially to public audiences. Despite the effects that journal editors and journalists may have on the scientific process, these groups’ perspectives on their roles and responsibilities in the conduct and translation of science–and in SBG specifically–are poorly understood. To begin filling this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with editors working at academic journals that publish SBG research (n = 10) and journalists who have reported on SBG studies in the media (n = 13).