Science Communication Practice Research Articles

Balancing practice and research: a framework for strategic science communication

In ‘Strategic Science Communication: A Guide to Setting the Right Objectives for More Effective Public Engagement’, authors John Besley and Anthony Dudo recognize the existing divide between practice and research in science communication and work to bridge this gap. The authors admirably balance actionable information for practitioners and the theoretical literatures underpinning them. Both of the book’s intended audiences, practitioners and researchers, can glean informative insight from its pages. The text focuses on 12 communication objectives that research suggests are at the core of effective science communication and each chapter is written using straightforward language that makes the book accessible for newcomers to the discipline. For the time-pressed science communication practitioner, each chapter includes a summary with driving questions that relate to implementation of the tactic covered in that chapter. For scholars in science communication, the chapters are good starting points for deeper examination of the related literature. Throughout the book, the authors acknowledge that the strategic communication of science is a significant challenge, one that is not to be taken lightly and can, and should, be evidence-based.

Science communication: a messy conundrum of practice, research and theory

Theoretical perspectives of science communication were initially driven by practice, which in turn have influenced practice and further science communication scholarship. The practice of science communication includes a variety of quite diverse roles. Likewise, the scholarship of science communication draws upon a mix of disciplines. I argue that the apparent messiness of science communication scholarship and practice is also its wealth. If blame can be avoided in developing and applying science communication models, and if the coexistence of all science communication models can be embraced then both the scholarship and practice of science communication is likely to be more effective.

Advancing inclusion through culturally relevant science communication: a perspective from Puerto Rico

The past 20 years of science communication have seen important progress towards inclusion, equity, and justice. In this commentary, I review some of those changes and discuss how culturally relevant science communication activities are part of a broad movement seeking to change the culture, research, and practice of science communication. I draw on my experiences as a practitioner working with the nonprofit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR) to offer lessons for the whole field to continue to address past and present exclusions and injustices and avoid future ones.

Exploring the politics of science communication research: looking at science communication from a social justice perspective

What can we say about equity, diversity and inclusion in science communication research over the past 20 years? This is a thorny question because of course we want to be constructive, to recognise change and to respect those whose hard-won research on equity issues has meant so much to many of us. At the same time, it is impossible — given what we know through our research — not to take a critical stance. We critique the status quo of science communication research from a social justice perspective and reflect on how we might change, perhaps bringing what has been marginal (and indeed the marginalised) into the core of science communication research, practice and policy.

Databases, Science Communication, and the Division of Epistemic Labour

There are many ways in which biases can enter processes of scientific reasoning. One of these is what Ludwik Fleck has called a “harmony of illusions”. In this paper, Fleck’s ideas on the relevance of social mechanisms in epistemic processes and his detailed description of publication processes in science will be used as a starting point to investigate the connection between cognitive processes, social dynamics, and biases in this context.Despite its usefulness as a first step towards a more detailed analysis, Fleck’s account needs to be updated in order to take the developments of digital communication technologies of the 21st century into account. Taking a closer look at today’s practices of science communication shows that information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a major role here. By presenting a detailed case study concerning the database SCOPUS, the question will be investigated how such ICTs can influence the division of epistemic labour. The result will be that they potentially undermine the epistemic benefits of social dynamics in science communication due to their inherent tendency to reduce the diversity of scientific hypotheses and ideas.

CSE's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee: Celebrating Our First Year of Growth, Successes, and Future Direction.

Scholarly publishing organization leaders, journal editor and editorial teams, and authors recognize that advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) best practices helps to enhance diversity across a variety of areas, including but not limited to, disciplinary, racial and ethnic, and linguistic and cultural diversity, and to promote the value and benefits gained from diversity of opinion, thought, and perspective.1,2 Recently, there have been important and long-needed discussions regarding why, how, and where principles of DEI should be integrated into scholarly publishing.1 In September 2021, the Council of Science Editors (CSE) Board of Directors (BOD) approved the formation of the CSE DEI Committee out of the existing DEI Task Force, formed the year before. The original task force, and later the committee, grew from the BOD’s commitment to establishing CSE as a leader in the field of scholarly publishing on integrating timely, effective, and responsive DEI principles in organizational culture and operations, as well as in educational opportunities for members. The purpose of the CSE DEI Committee is to support the organization in building capacity among its leadership, members, and the profession at large to deliver programmatic activities and training that integrate DEI best practices in science editing, publication management, scholarly publishing and communication, member recruitment, participation, and engagement. Since the BOD’s approval of the DEI Committee, the priority has been to recruit active members. The committee currently consists of nearly 20 members working in various capacities among organizations and journals in scholarly publishing. The committee spent time early on deciding […]

Participatory co-design of science communication strategies for public engagement in the US and Ecuador around health behaviour change

Science communication research and practice currently promote strategies oriented towards creating audience engagement around scientific content. Consequently, science communication needs to continually explore new methodologies that enable audiences’ participation in order to meet their interests and needs. The present study combines qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) methods guided by decolonial epistemologies to develop a co-designed project with public health, nutrition and sports science researchers to recruit young audiences from Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, and from Cuenca, Ecuador. The main goal of this study was to create strategies to motivate young audiences’ engagement and interest in adopting healthy habits. This article focuses on the study’s research design in order to provide guidelines and procedural recommendations for facilitating a co-design approach for developing science communication initiatives targeting children and teenagers in Ecuador and the United States. As we demonstrate, the PAR approach for co-design leads to useful outcomes: (1) the incorporation of decolonial theory guidelines in participatory research; and (2) the development of science communication strategies that combine online and offline activities to put in dialogue scientists and their audiences, ultimately resulting in mutual learning, thus allowing scholars and practitioners to explore in practical terms how to co-design improved strategies.

How should we organize science communication trainings to achieve competencies?

ABSTRACT To advance science communication training, we use learning theory to build on an earlier effort to create a comprehensive list of topics for learning science communication. We identify threshold concepts that can help learners move through the community of practice of science communication. We organize the topics as essential or advanced, and specify their relevance to occasional, active, and professional science communicators. We understand learning progressions as a way to structure movement within a community of practice, especially the development of stronger identity as a science communicator. We believe this approach can lead to development of formal learning progressions for structuring science communication training. Our goal is to help move science communication training from an opportunistic activity drawing on the particular interests and skills of individual trainers to a more systematic enterprise.

Humor Can Increase Perceived Communicator Effectiveness Regardless of Race, Gender, and Expertise—If You are Funny Enough

Across a wide range of issues and a variety of sources, scientific information often gets lost in translation, failing to properly inform, educate, and engage publics in a meaningful way. But science communication is like a wine—it is better when it is outside the box. One promising tactic for more effective scientific communication is the use of humor to both engage and educate less interested and knowledgeable citizens on important topics. Here, we investigate whether the identity of a speaker influences perceptions of their effectiveness at connecting with and engaging public audiences. We conducted a 2 (Gender: Female vs. Male) × 2 (Race: Black Speaker vs. White Speaker) × 2 (Credentials: Scientist vs. Comedian) between-subjects experiment and found that race and gender of the source, relative to their credentials, were not significant factors for predicting the perceptions of communicator effectiveness. We also found that experienced humor, or mirth, moderated the relationship between the speaker’s credentials and perceived effectiveness. We discuss the implications of our findings for science communication research and practice.

A review of ‘Science Communication Practice in China’

‘Science Communication Practice in China’ is a book that does two things. One very intentional, one less so. Intentionally, it presents the state of science communication and popularisation in China with a strong focus on the historical and policy context this is embedded in. Less (or possibly un-)intentionally, it makes explicit both its assumptions about what science communication should aim for and how it should go about its business, as well as forcing the reader to acknowledge their own assumptions of the role and place of science communication.

Making science communication inclusive: an exploratory study of choices, challenges and change mechanisms in the United States from an emerging movement

This qualitative study explores perspectives of U.S.A.-based science communication researchers and practitioners who attended a symposium focused on advancing inclusive science communication (ISC). ISC is a growing global movement that aims to center equity, inclusion, and marginalized perspectives in science communication. Findings underscore the complexity of systemic barriers to ISC, the critical need for resource sharing and network building, and the importance of evaluation frameworks. The authors also highlight critical dialogue as a strategic tool that might help support intentional, reciprocal, and reflexive practices in science communication.

Why do experts disagree? The development of a taxonomy.

People are increasingly exposed to conflicting health information and must navigate this information to make numerous decisions, such as which foods to consume, a process many find difficult. Although some consumers attribute these disagreements to aspects related to uncertainty and complexity of research, many use a narrower set of credibility-based explanations. Experts' views on disagreements are underinvestigated and lack explicit identification and classification of the differences in causes for disagreement. Consequently, there is a gap in existing literature to understand the range of reasons for these contradictions. Combining the findings from a literature study and expert interviews, a taxonomy of disagreements was developed. It identifies 10 types of disagreement classified under three dimensions: informant-, information- and uncertainty-related causes for disagreement. The taxonomy may assist with adoption of more effective strategies to deal with conflicting information and contributes to research and practice of science communication in the context of disagreement.

We Need to Do Better: Five Notable Failings in Science Communication

Despite significant growth in interest and investment in science communication, the field has demonstrated some high-profile failures in recent years—exemplified by anti-vaccine and anti-climate change beliefs—supported by interest groups that are often highly effective at promoting anti-science messages. This paper looks at five key areas where science communication research and practice need to do better, and offers some solutions, in order to achieve the impact that science communicators strive for.

New trends in science communication fostering evidence-informed policymaking

This article aims to assess novel trends in science communication relating to how policymakers in the field of innovation and digitalisation policy consume and use scientific findings. We investigate the mutual influence that science communication and policy have on each other and answer the question how emerging science communication trends in the science-policy nexus might influence the use of scientific findings in the policymaking process. By using Google and the largest scholarly repositories, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu, from 1st March to 31st May 2020, we reviewed policy documents and academic literature containing relevant information on the evolution of characteristics of global, European, and national science communication activities and the interrelated policy responses to identify the most relevant current trends in the evidence-to-policy process alongside three key challenges; trust, translation, and timing. The three identified main trends are (1) a stronger engagement between science and policy, (2) more open, reliable, and accountable science communication practices with policymakers, and (3) the increasing digitalisation and visualisation of science communication. We deepened our investigation by conducting online semi-structured interviews with relevant policy stakeholders at the international and national level between 1st May and 31st July 2020. With the support of the European Commission and building on the existing network of partners, we identified decision-makers and advisors with relevant experience in fields related to innovation and digitalisation policy working in four countries that represent different levels of generalized social trust: Austria, Italy, Hungary, and the Netherlands, and at the international/European Union level. After an online consultation process with a global set of policymakers, these theoretical findings were translated to policy recommendations showcasing possible solutions in science communication that may be initiated, strengthened, or continued by policy stakeholders in order to reach a more effective and efficient uptake of scientific findings in evidence-informed policymaking.

Developing open, reflexive and socially responsible science communication research and practice

There are many different pathways into science communication practice and research. But rarely do these pathways require critical reflection on what it means to be a ‘responsible’ science communicator or researcher. The need for this kind of critical reflection is increasingly salient in a world marked by the wilful disregard of evidence in many high-profile contexts, including politics and, most recently, public health. Responsible science communicators and researchers are audience- and impact-focused, beginning their decision-making process by considering their audiences’ starting positions, needs and values. This article outlines some key considerations for developing socially responsibility for science communication as a field both in terms of practice and research.

Towards the reflective science communication practitioner

The practice of science communication is fundamentally changing. This requires science communication practitioners to continuously adapt their practice to an ever-changing ecosystem and highlights the importance of reflective practice for science communication. In this study, we supported 21 science communication practitioners in developing a reflective practice. Our study shows that reflective practice enabled practitioners in becoming aware of their own stance towards science or assumptions regarding audiences (single-loop learning), underlying and sometimes conflicting values or worldviews present in science communication situations (double-loop learning), and facilitated practitioners to adapt their practice accordingly. Triple-loop learning, allowing practitioners to fundamentally rethink and transform their mode of science communication, was less observed. We argue that reflective practice contributes to opening-up public conversations on science — including a conversation on underlying values, worldviews, and emotions, next to communicating scientific facts.

Beyond the needs of science — can opennes and reflexivitiy push the polish science communication further?

The Polish science communication field has grown into a robust and diverse community. Centralised and governmentally funded initiatives are complemented by more bottom-up actions led by academia, researchers, journalists and educators. Still, the main goals of science communication in Poland seem to be a diffusion of scientific knowledge and building trust towards science and scientist. The concept of openness and reflexivity could help to include the needs and perspectives of non-scientific audiences into science communication practice in Poland.

STS and science communication: Reflecting on a relationship.

This brief commentary considers the relation between science communication research and practice and the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). It outlines some key aspects of STS approaches, from an emphasis on exploratory research to considerations of normativity and the political, and discusses what they can bring to science communication. It ends by arguing for methodological and disciplinary diversity in science communication research.

Practicing engaged research through pandemic times: do not feed the animals?

From 'Feed the Birds' to 'Do Not Feed the Animals' takes an engaged approach in which science communication is both process and outcome of the research. The project started in the UK in March 2020, coinciding with government-imposed lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; since the project's engagement had been designed around in-person interactions, a rapid and creative rethink was needed. This paper outlines the redesign of the project and describes a hybrid model of on-line and in-person engagement, integrating new skills and technologies which the pandemic catalysed, with well-established in-person practice in science communication. Our research develops good practice for online, participatory science communication, and supports the advancement of engaged research more widely.

Participatory science communication needs to consider power, place, pain and ‘poisson’: a practitioner insight

The language of science communication has moved from deficit to dialogue and talk of a ‘new social contract’ with the public ‘invited to participate’. This paper outlines a practitioner path that begins with storytelling and moves to a more participatory mode of practice of science communication for adaptation to climate change at the community scale. I outline personal practitioner reflections, specifically the need to consider issues of power, place, pain and the need to challenge assumptions. I propose the need to consider context, many forms of local knowledge and expertise, social learning, plus the pain of historical, contemporary or projected loss.