Dr Paul Whaley
Honorary ResearcherResearch Overview
My research focuses on improving how we conduct and interpret scientific research in environmental health. This includes:
- developing guidance documents and study evaluation tools for primary and secondary research (in particular, for non-animal test methods and systematic reviews)
- supporting the creation and use of open data standards, to make scientific evidence easier to find, evaluate, and reuse
- designing evidence-to-decision frameworks, that help people not only "follow the science" but consistently and transparently account for all important factors when making a decision
Current Research
I have five areas of interest in the domain of human environmental health:
- Improving primary research: I develop guidance on doing, reporting, and evaluating primary studies in an effort to improve the rigour of basic research. One collaboration is with the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment, developing instruments for assessing the validity of non-animal toxicology studies.
- Conducting better evidence syntheses: I promote improvement in research practices around surveying, monitoring, and make sense of evidence. This includes evidence mapping and surveillance methods with the US National Toxicology Program, and work with the WHO on systematic reviews of the health impacts of occupational environmental exposures.
- Promoting open data standards: I am interested in how we can use computers to make toxicology research work better. This includes developing and promoting use of data standards, from ontologies through to exchange standards, and how these can be implemented by scientific publishers.
- Improving the use of evidence in decision-making: Accounting consistently for all relevant factors when making decisions is a big challenge in policy-making. I am contributing to adaptation of the GRADE Evidence-to-Decision framework for environmental health contexts, and on identifying system-level interventions that improve the use of scientific evidence in decision-making.
- Building a healthier research ecosystem: I am creator and Editor-in-Chief of Evidence-Based Toxicology, arguably the first full-blooded open science journal for environmental health research. The purpose of the journal is to implement publisher-side practices that incentivise and support a better, more rewarding, more sustainable research ecosystem.
External Roles
- Research Fellow at the Evidence-Based Toxicology Collaboration
- LEC representative to WHO Chemical Risk Assessment Network
- Editor-in-Chief,
- ONTOX Stakeholder Advisory Board
- Advisory Board, JBI Evidence Synthesis Taxonomy Initiative
02/01/2017 → …
Research
09/10/2013 → …
Research
Invited talk
Invited talk
Invited talk
Membership of committee
Membership of committee
Editorial activity
Membership of committee
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Membership of committee
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Visiting an external academic institution
Membership of committee
Visiting an external academic institution
Membership of committee
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Membership of committee
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Editorial activity
Business Engagement
Member of an organisation
Visiting an external academic institution
Editorial activity
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Prize (including medals and awards)
Prize (including medals and awards)