defining and measuring collective intelligence

Collective intelligence could also increase the responsiveness of evaluating new information. Emerging scientific papers typically undergo independent critique, or “peer review,” but this process is notoriously slow. During the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers collectively responded by accelerating some peer review processes and, more commonly, openl... See more

Scientific publications could even be augmented with technological tools that indicate how findings correspond to the broader literature or how samples should be structured for this kind of research.

Increasingly, technological interfaces allow the public to participate in many ways. Participation can be active, for example, by acting as “citizen scientists” (Silvertown, 2009) or a mass monitoring system. The public can also passively inform scientists through their collective online discourse: such “social listening” has enabled science commun... See more

Designing for diversity in the scientific collective also requires constructive spaces for deliberation, critique, and debate—discourse that is essential to knowledge-building—which support diverse participation. These spaces should be built around critiquing ideas rather than individuals, with recognized codes of conduct for respectful engagement.

Diversity needs to be deliberately engineered because biases can easily be overlooked when values and norms are embedded into contemporary society. It is necessary to review processes, such as consensus-building, information gatekeeping, and sensemaking, and establish transparent frameworks to incorporate diversity in these processes (Thapar-Björke... See more

In areas where consensus has yet to form, aggregation can advance science by exposing areas in which further evidence is needed (Minas & Jorm, 2010).

Communicating in terms of the “collective accumulated evidence” shifts the message toward what the best available evidence indicates.

Third, aggregating expert discourse, that is, discussion of the evidence, can showcase how reasoned argument between scientists informs scientific knowledge. This can be as critical as the evidence itself, especially in crisis situations where action must be taken as evidence emerges. New digital tools for judgment aggregation in the civic particip... See more