This session will look at how methods of scientific communication affect trust in published research and its societal impact, in addition to the importance of public trust to publishers, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and communities. Communicators at all levels of the scientific process, from the individual researcher trying to break through the noise, to the communications professionals getting science to journalists, policymakers and the public, will discuss how they think about science communication, what methods are most effective and least effective, and how open access and AI might affect these variables.

COVID-19, the OSTP Nelson Memo, the Cancer Moonshot, and more—in the past three years, STM publishing and government decision-making have significantly overlapped. But how these decisions are reached—and how scholarly publishers try to influence these decisions, both before and after implementation—is an opaque process. This session brings together representatives from scholarly publishing's government relations and public affairs teams. We'll review the possibilities, realities, and limits of advocacy work; the key individuals, agencies, and committees of the US federal government that oversee the sciences, arts, and humanities; and the policy positions and legislation affecting publishers, authors, and researchers in these spaces.