Founded in 1989, its original name was Comitato italiano per il controllo delle affermazioni sul paranormale (‘Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal’), derived from CSICOP and chosen because the acronym “CICAP” resembled “check-up” in English. Recently, the last two words were changed to sulle Pseudoscienze (‘of the Pseudosciences’), since the term ‘paranormal’ has fallen into disuse in Italy and the committee’s focus has shifted.
CICAP reaches out to the public through conferences and public lectures, radio and television appearances, through the publication of Query a quarterly magazine (formerly Scienza & Paranormale, ‘Science & Paranormal’), books and articles regarding these topics, through the conservation of a library and an archive of articles. Additional material, both on CICAP own research as well as foreigner skeptical and scientific papers translated into Italian, is published on QueryOnline, the online version of the printed magazine.