DOI: 10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc5c
title: A review of expert group-based science advisory processes in Canada

description: Some of the most authoritative science advice comes from groups of experts
 operating under systematic advisory methods. In this paper, we compiled
 publicly available information on 676 science advisory processes conducted
 over a 28-year period by five Canadian science advisory institutions (i.e.
 the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, the National Advisory Council
 on Immunization, the Canadian Council of Academies, the Royal Society of
 Canada, and the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada)
 and used these data to explore how these institutions operate. Despite
 common objectives (i.e. the delivery of sound scientific advice), we found
 considerable variation among institutions, including in the number of
 experts involved in developing and reviewing advice, the length of
 resulting science advice documents, and the time required for individual
 science advisory processes to be completed. In general, the institutions
 have become more transparent over time, driven primarily by disclosing
 more information on the experts involved. Additionally, we found that
 science advice reports have become lengthier, and the delivery of science
 advice now takes considerably more time for most institutions. We discuss
 these findings in the context of recent criticisms of expert group-based
 science advisory processes and suggest there may be trade-offs associated
 with emphasizing different science advice principles.
description: We collected basic information related to science advisory
 processes coordinated under the five different expert group-based science
 advice institutions described above using manual data extraction, and
 using the <em>rvest </em>(Wickham, 2024)<em>
 </em>and <em>pdftools </em>(Ooms, 2024)<em>
 </em>packages in R version 4.4.1 (R Core Team, 2021). The data
 collected included: (i)            
 <em>Title</em> – the title of the science advice report
 produced as output of the advisory process;
 (ii)            <em>Publication Date</em> – the date
 that the science advice report was publicly released;
 (iii)           <em>Advisory Period</em> – the number
 of days between the start of the science advisory process and the
 publication date of the science advice report;
 (iv)           <em>Number of Authors</em> – the
 number of experts involved in authoring the science advice
 report; (v)            <em>Number of
 Reviewers</em> – the number of experts involved in reviewing and
 providing input on materials for the purpose of improving the science
 advice report and refining the final advice;
 (vi)           <em>Report Length</em> – the number of
 pages in the science advice report, and; (vii)         
 <em>URL</em> – a web link to the science advice
 report. We compiled data between May 1 and August 9,
 2024, from publicly available sources and spanned all years for which
 science advice reports were available (that is, for each institution, we
 included reports that stretched as far back in time as were available).
 Because of the large number of science advice reports available for CSAS
 (n = 1380) and COSEWIC (n = 1059), we randomly selected 10 reports per
 institution per calendar year to reduce the scope of our review while
 maintaining coverage over time. For other science advice institutions, we
 included all available reports. In total, we compiled information for 676
 science advice reports produced between 1996 and 2024. Further details
 related to data collection are included in the Electronic Supplementary
 Material of the accompanying manuscript.
description: # A review of expert group-based science advisory processes in Canada
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc5c](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc5c) ## Description of the data and file structure These data were collected to support an analysis of expert group-based science advisory processes in Canada. The data were compiled from publicly available science advice reports published between 1996 and 2024, which were accessed from institutional websites between May and August 2024. ### Files and variables #### File: Science\_advice\_data.csv **Description:** This file contains data on 676 science advice reports published by Canadian science advisory institutions between 1996 and 2024. Each row represents a single science advice report.  ##### Variables * Series: Refers to the science advisory series (aka institution) where COSEWIC = Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, CSAS = the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, RSC = Royal Society of Canada Expert Reports, CCA = Council of Canadian Academies, and NACI = the National Advisory Committee on Immunization * Title: the title of the focal science advice report * URL: the URL at which the focal science advice report can be found * Date_published: the date that the science advice report was published * Time_to_complete_days: the number of days between the start of the science advisory process and the publishing of the report. Also referred to as the 'advisory period' in our manuscript * N_authors: the number of expert authors involved in producing the report * N_reviewers: the number of experts involved in report the report * SA_pages: the length of the report's pdf document, in pages