Want to make your research credible online? Image matters

Whether it is via videos, blogs, social media, or mainstream news outlets, research findings are communicated in many formats and media other than the traditional research article. However, especially when they are divorced from standard markers of academic quality, what makes these communications credible? Drawing on a study of the perceived creditability of scientific communications, Clara Boothby shows how different platforms are endowed with different degrees of credibility and explores how formal cues and framing effects shape perceptions of research online.