Fifty, or even twenty-five years ago, procuring, analyzing, and presenting data in a way that illuminated larger truths was the exclusive province of scientists who did their work in institutions and then published their work in academic journals. That began changing with the democratization of data, more ready access to electronic means of disseminating writing, and with the rise of fields like data journalism, which started doing much of what scientists did—evaluated data and presented it in a way that produced meaning. These evolutions are, in the main, positive. They allow greater access to data for many well outside the confines of mainstream science, encouraging transparency. They allow for the possibility of insights that might otherwise have been missed by scientists and create ample space for publishing these same insights. In addition, these shifts have allowed for the more rapid analysis of data to address pressing contemporary issues, unbound by the processes of science.
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