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Last week, echoing other commentators, Jeremy Berg, the new editor-in-chief of the journal Science, told Times Higher Education that there was a ¡°crisis in?public trust in science¡± and that scientists were now seen as just another interest group.

Meanwhile, there has been a flurry of discussion in the US asking whether universities are hostile environments for conservatives, especially in the wake of the release in March of Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University, a book that found that conservative academics often hide their allegiances until gaining tenure.

david.matthews@tesglobal.com

Left graph: data are from surveys of college faculty conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute every other year and compiled by Heterodox Academy, which campaigns for ideological diversity in universities. ¡°Liberal¡± includes those identifying as ¡°far left¡±, and ¡°conservative¡± includes ¡°far right¡±. Moderates have been excluded.
Right graph: taken from ¡°Politicization of Science in the Public Sphere: A Study of Public Trust in the United States¡±, published in the American Sociological Review in 2012. Moderates have been excluded.