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The Value of Opinion in Science and the Forest Service Research Organization
Author(s) -
RUGGIERO LEONARD F.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the journal of wildlife management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1937-2817
pISSN - 0022-541X
DOI - 10.2193/2008-382
Subject(s) - mandate , service (business) , value (mathematics) , confusion , publication , public relations , politics , empirical research , accountability , political science , business , public administration , marketing , computer science , law , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , machine learning , psychoanalysis
There is confusion about conflicts of interest between sources of funding and the extent to which Forest Service researchers are free to publish their findings. Forest Service Research is an independent entity with no administrative accountability to policy makers up to the office of the Chief of the Forest Service. Congressional mandate ensures that research will be free from the influence of politics that land management necessarily entails. Because politics involves opinions, it is important to note that opinions per se are not scientific and must be appropriately compared with empirical data before they can be considered so. It is the quantitative test of an opinion that renders it scientific, not the opinion itself.