Dr. Arthur Paul Pedersen, faculty research scientist with the CUNY Remote Sensing Earth Systems Institute (CREST Institute) and adjunct assistant professor of computer science at City College, is the lead author of a paper appearing in the January 2025 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper is a critical essay on measurement literacy in scientific discourse.
When asked about his accomplishment, Pedersen replied, “That the case for measurement literacy has prevailed through peer review to be published in the pages of PNAS is an important achievement for science.”
“History is filled with instances where failures in measurement literacy have negatively impacted science and human affairs,” Pedersen remarked. A chief objective of the paper is to communicate the urgency of fostering measurement literacy in contemporary scientific discourse, according to Pedersen.
The January 2025 PNAS publication elaborates on why measurement literacy is crucial for sound science and policy making. Examples drawn from across the sciences are called upon to explain why measurement literacy is essential to the effective performance of significant scientific activities, including inference, experimental design, validation, and treatment of error in theory construction. The essay sheds light on the critical function of measurement literacy for shaping well-informed perspectives and guiding intelligent decisions on scientific and public policy issues, such as the reproducibility and theory crises, research funding decisions, public health, and economic policies.
As faculty research scientist with the CREST Institute, Pedersen led research and writing for the paper and saw to its publication, upholding CREST’s commitment to excellence in interdisciplinary research. “This paper is the result of extensive collaboration with the very best scientists from across various disciplines — and from across the world,” said Pedersen. “Crucial to its success is the recognition that our common goal of effecting change in measurement literacy can be achieved through deliberate, open, sustained dialogue on measurement in the sciences — a discourse on science bound not by prejudice but by reason alone.”
Pedersen co-authored this paper with colleagues from Syracuse University, University of Washington, University of Missouri, University of Western Australia, The Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Trento, Italy, and University of Potsdam, Germany.
Citation of the article:
Pedersen, A. P., Kellen, D., Mayo-Wilson, C., Davis-Stober, C. P., Dunn, J. C., Khan, M. A., Stinchcombe, M. B., Kalish, M. L., Tentori, K., & Haaf, J. (2025). “Discourse on Measurement.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(5), e2401229121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401229121