The 2024 John Maddox Prize winners: standing up for open science and human rights

The John Maddox Prize, named after the former editor of Nature (London, UK) who championed good scientific communication, is awarded to researchers who bravely stand up for sound science in the face of personal or public persecution. Now, the 2024 prizes have been announced!

The John Maddox Prize, in partnership with Sense about Science (London, UK), aims to celebrate individuals who stand up for science and evidence-based policy, speaking out bravely on difficult topics and contributing to changes in public discourse or policy. Last year, the John Maddox Prize was awarded to Nancy Olivieri for publishing the potential adverse effects of a drug even though the pharmaceutical company was threatening legal action against her, while the 2023 Early Career Prize went to Chelsea Polis for challenging the false marketing claims made by the manufacturer of the fertility tracking thermometer Daysy.

This year, the John Maddox Prize has recognized Patrick Ball (Director of Research at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, CA, USA) with the John Maddox Prize and Kelly Cobey (Director of the Metaresearch and Open Science Program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Canada) with the Maddox Early Career Award, both for standing up for science in the public interest.

Patrick Ball

Patrick received the John Maddox Prize for his work in identifying, cataloging and prosecuting war crimes using rigorous statistical and mathematical modeling. For the last 30 years, Patrick has dedicated himself and his work to analyzing data on human rights violations and killings from Bosnia, Timor-Leste, Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador, Peru, Syria, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and even the USA.

Commenting on their decision to award Patrick, the judging panel stated that he, “…has steadfastly advocated for introducing rigor in cataloging human rights abuses despite limited resources. He is among the pioneering figures who have brought statistical analysis to this critical field, which has been instrumental in advancing the understanding of such violations.”

Kelly Cobey

Kelly has been awarded the Maddox Early Career Award for her work advocating for open science and the need to reform research assessment. She is actively involved in tackling the rising problem of ‘predatory’ journals, which lack the scientific rigor of peer-reviewed publications and often entice submissions by providing false or misleading information to authors. Kelly offers resources and tools to researchers to encourage them to embrace open science practices.

Concluding remarks

Director of Sense About Science and a judge on the Maddox Prize panel, Tracey Brown highlighted just how impactful these individuals are in society: “Our winners, Kelly Cobey and Patrick Ball, are to be congratulated for their impressive impact, but also for taking such responsibility for the way that evidence is being used to make decisions – in the evaluation of research and in the international criminal justice system.”