Footnotes
[..] linking to sources is such an easy thing to do and the motivations for avoiding links are so dubious, I've detected myself using a new rule of thumb: if you don't link to primary sources, I just don't trust you.
-- Ben Goldacre
I was asked today: when some scientist makes a claim that we're told is based on stuff too complicated to understand, but we're supposed to believe it anyway - how are we supposed to be able to trust them. How do we know they're not making it up?
I think it probably boils down to "scientists use footnotes".