Public views on science and scientific research: The case of COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 Pandemic has become widely discussed topic all over the world since it emerged. The public has tried to access information about the pandemic and "science communication" has become more important in this process. Scientists, politicians and media have had to reconsider their role in "Public Understanding of Science". The aim of this study is to investigate the public's views on science and scientific research during COVID-19 pandemic from the framework of "science communication". The "Science Barometer Special Edition-Corona" (2020) scale developed by Wissenschaft im Dialog was adapted for this study. After the pilot study, the scale was delivered to participants via SurveyMonkey with convenience sampling method. The data set obtained from 1010 participants was categorized; normality and homogeneity tests were performed with the SPSS 25.0 program. Cronbach Alpha was determined as 0,705. The data were analyzed in accordance with each sub-problem and frequency distributions, percentages were obtained. According to findings, Turkish people have high level of trust in science and scientific research during the COVID-19 Pandemic; they mostly prefer television or social media to access scientific information. Trust in scientific statements made by scientists, doctors and healthcare professionals in mass media is higher than trust in politicians. On the other hand, the public thinks that political decisions during pandemic should be based on science. The findings on the public's understanding and public trust of science were discussed in terms of demographic variations. In the light of these findings, suggestions were made to create an effective science communication ecosystem.