This year, there has been lots of talk in the news and social media about “this new study says…” and “that scientific publication…” but why do we generally consider peer-reviewed scientific papers trustworthy? What really goes into publishing a scientific study?

In this video, evolutional biologist and science communication (sci comm) expert Dr. Kathryn M. (Katie) Everson describes the long and difficult process that researchers take on to publish a scientific paper.

Dr. Everson is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kentucky. In her research, she focuses on three main questions: how many species exist in a system, how are those species related, and how has their evolutionary history been shaped by landscape or ecology? You can find out more about Dr. Everson’s research and sci comm at https://kmeverson.org.