Echo chambers in science describe the amplification and repetition of information within closed networks. Frequently used data sources can cause echo chambers as scientists keep reading similar outputs from different sources, creating false perceptions of certainty and variety of data sources. We show this effect by studying the scientific and grey literature on water use by electricity systems. The power sector is the largest contributor to anthropogenic carbon emissions and the second largest water consumer. We have assessed the scope and references of 2,426 papers and created a citation network to trace original data sources. Most data sources used for the last 30 years originate from a few old US publications, recently also Chinese, that echo through publications. This echo effect, also reflected in recent scientific publications, creates a confirmation bias, also facilitating double counting of the water intensities of electricity generation. This example from sustainability science warns of the risk of echo chambers in other scientific disciplines.

科学中的回声室描述了封闭网络中信息的放大和重复。经常使用的数据源可能会引起回声室，因为科学家不断从不同的源读取相似的输出，从而造成对数据源确定性和多样性的错误认识。我们通过研究有关电力系统用水的科学和灰色文献来证明这种效果。电力部门是人为碳排放的最大贡献者，也是第二大用水量。我们评估了2,426篇论文的范围和参考文献，并创建了一个引文网络来跟踪原始数据源。过去30年中使用的大多数数据源都来自一些旧的美国出版物，最近也有中文出版物，它们在出版物中回荡。这种回声效应也反映在最近的科学出版物中，产生确认偏差，也便于对发电水强度进行重复计算。可持续发展科学的这个例子警告了其他科学学科中回声腔的风险。