Model Of Scientific Communication Research Articles

Scientific Utopia: I. Opening Scientific Communication

Existing norms for scientific communication are rooted in anachronistic practices of bygone eras making them needlessly inefficient. We outline a path that moves away from the existing model of scientific communication to improve the efficiency in meeting the purpose of public science—knowledge accumulation. We call for six changes: (a) full embrace of digital communication; (b) open access to all published research; (c) disentangling publication from evaluation; (d) breaking the “one article, one journal” model with a grading system for evaluation and diversified dissemination outlets; (e) publishing peer review; and (f) allowing open, continuous peer review. We address conceptual and practical barriers to change and provide examples showing how the suggested practices are being used already. The critical barriers to change are not technical or financial; they are social. Although scientists guard the status quo, they also have the power to change it.

Professional identity on the Web: Engineering blogs and public engagement

Blogs offer a space where engineers can engage with public audiences about engineering topics, challenging and surpassing a deficit model of science communication. Communication that is adapted for a broad audience, discusses topics that are socially relevant, and facilitates participation and dialogue is more likely to be engaging. We examined 14 top engineering blogs to see how engineers present themselves and how they communicate with the public. A qualitative content analysis of the communication, with an eye toward professional identity management, uncovered common themes associated with identity and self-presentation, leading to better understanding of how this unique communication genre serves to reinforce, question, and/or challenge popular representations of engineering identities and ideologies. Our analysis shows that despite the potential of blogs to facilitate engagement, engineers' reliance on an engineering style of communication may fail to engage public readers.

Modelos de gestão de revistas científicas: uma discussão necessária

A possibilidade de se publicar revista científica em meio eletrônico e em acesso livre, com apoio das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TICs), tem acarretado mudanças substanciais no processo de comunicação científica. Um aspecto ainda pouco discutido nessa nova configuração, diz respeito aos modelos de gestão de periódicos, para os quais convergem questões, tanto de custos quanto de garantia de qualidade do conteúdo. Ambas as dimensões colocam em foco a sustentabilidade dos periódicos eletrônicos em acesso livre, que é o tema abordado no presente artigo. O ponto de partida retoma uma discussão sobre o nascimento e morte dos periódicos científicos brasileiros e como isso pode se reconfigurar à luz das modificações em curso no campo. Dos modelos clássicos de gestão, passa-se à descrição de um amplo portfólio de alternativas disponível atualmente, o que pede uma reflexão sobre a sustentabilidade dos mesmos. O artigo finaliza com apontamentos sobre a importância de colocar esse tema na agenda das políticas públicas de ciência e tecnologia e informação no Brasil e, mais especificamente, na agenda de prioridades de pesquisa em saúde pública.

Geoengineering and the Science Communication Environment: A Cross-Cultural Experiment

We conducted a two-nation study (United States, n = 1500; England, n = 1500) to test a novel theory of science communication. The cultural cognition thesis posits that individuals make extensive reliance on cultural meanings in forming perceptions of risk. The logic of the cultural cognition thesis suggests the potential value of a distinctive two-channel science communication strategy that combines information content (“Channel 1”) with cultural meanings (“Channel 2”) selected to promote open-minded assessment of information across diverse communities. In the study, scientific information content on climate change was held constant while the cultural meaning of that information was experimentally manipulated. Consistent with the study hypotheses, we found that making citizens aware of the potential contribution of geoengineering as a supplement to restriction of CO2 emissions helps to offset cultural polarization over the validity of climate-change science. We also tested the hypothesis, derived from competing models of science communication, that exposure to information on geoengineering would provoke discounting of climate-change risks generally. Contrary to this hypothesis, we found that subjects exposed to information about geoengineering were slightly more concerned about climate change risks than those assigned to a control condition.

Nanotechnology: a new regime for the public in science?

"Public engagement in science" is one of the buzzwords that, since 2000, has been used in nanotechnology programs. To what extent does public engagement disrupt the traditional relations between science and the public? This paper briefly contrasts the traditional model of science communication - the diffusionist model - that prevailed in the twentieth century and the new model - the participatory model - that tends to prevail nowadays. Then it will try to disentangle the assumptions underlying the public dialogue initiated about nanotechnology, and conclude that nanotechnology actually develops a managerial model of society.

Hobbits, hunters and hydrology: Images of a “missing link,” and its scientific communication

Dissemination of the 2004 discovery of Homo floresiensis, aka the "Flores Hobbit," provides the case material for an analysis of science communication models, using coverage of the find in science journals, popular science magazines, and UK newspapers. A distinction is made between "popular science" and "public science," the latter notable for the proactive manner in which it seeks not simply to interpret science for a wider audience, but also expand upon it. The nature of the flows of knowledge between science and nonscience cultures is used to critique both traditional canonical models of science communication, and more recent constructivist accounts like that of Hilgartner's "continuum" model. The paper concludes by suggesting an extended model that builds on the logic of the river metaphor used by both Hilgartner and Gieryn. It is argued that this more complex, multi-directional, "hydrologic" model provides a richer account of science communication.

On the Shoulders of Idiots: Re-thinking Science Communication as ‘Event’

Characterised by a shift from a diffusion to a deliberation model of science communication, the past decades have witnessed a proliferation of science communication formats. In order to better understand the complexity and novelty of these formats, we propose a ‘model of emergence’ that conceptualises science communication as an event in which the event itself, as well as the various actors that contribute to it, are emergent. To operationalise this model of emergence, we use Isabelle Stengers' figure of the idiot as an analytical tool which lets us interrogate our own implicit assumptions about science communication and the way they shape interactions in specific communication events. This makes it possible to be more sensitive to the ways in which we enable the emergence of particular identities and audience reactions, but also how we understand the role of science communicators themselves. A recent experiment with a science communication installation, ‘The Landscape of Expectations’, is used as an example that lets us trace how the ‘idiotic behaviours’ of visitors, which on one level make no sense, enable us to query presuppositions about the repertoire of behaviours available to the public and the assumed relations of power between experts and laypeople.

Sources, Characteristics and Effects of Mass Media Communication on Science: A Review of the Literature, Current Trends and Areas for Future Research

AbstractA significant amount of science coverage can be found nowadays in the mass media and is the main source of information about science for many. Accordingly, the relation between science and the media has been intensively analyzed within the social scientific community. It is difficult to keep track of this research, however, as a flurry of studies has been published on the issue. This article provides such an overview. First, it lays out the main theoretical models of science communication, that is, the ‘public understanding of science’ and the ‘mediatization’ model. Second, it describes existing empirical research. In this section, it demonstrates how science’s agenda‐building has improved, how science journalists working routines are described, how different scientific disciplines are presented in the mass media and what effects these media representations (might) have on the audience. Third, the article points out future fields of research.

Designing a viable scientific communication model: VSM approach

PurposeThis paper aims to design a viable model for a scholarly communication system.Design/methodology/approachStafford Beer's viable system model (VSM) is an exceptionally insightful analysis tool which has been applied in different fields. This paper illustrates the usefulness of Beer's model as a tool for anticipating, planning, and implementing large‐scale development in the scientific communication domain. Following the Beer thinking of organisational structure and the usefulness of VSM in knowledge management stated by some researchers, a viable scientific communication model (VSCM) was designed.FindingsThe paper has developed a viable scientific communication model which relates personal knowledge about a scientific communication system with Beer's viability thinking.Research limitations/implicationsThe designed model is fairly conceptual.Originality/valueCompared with the earlier models, it seems that the suggested model is not dependent on context, time, and scale. This model may be used in many contexts because the functions and the operations of scholarly communication are unique. This model is viable and can update itself over a period of years. New elements of scholarly communication and the Web 2.0 platforms have also been incorporated into the model.

Science blogs and public engagement with science: practices, challenges, and opportunities

Digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) are novelty tools that can be used to facilitate broader involvement of citizens in the discussions about science. The same tools can be used to reinforce the traditional top-down model of science communication. Empirical investigations of particular technologies can help to understand how these tools are used in the dissemination of information and knowledge as well as stimulate a dialog about better models and practices of science communication. This study focuses on one of the ICTs that have already been adopted in science communication, on science blogging. The findings from the analysis of eleven blogs are presented in an attempt to understand current practices of science blogging and to provide insight into the role of blogging in the promotion of more interactive forms of science communication.

Making Science Accessible: A Semiotics of Scientific Communication

This article serves as a demonstration of how certain models of literary analysis, used to theorize and analyze fiction and narrative, can also be applied to scientific communication in such a manner as to promote the accessibility of science to the general public and a greater awareness of the methodology used in making scientific discovery. The approach of this article is based on the assumption that the principles of structuralism and semiotics can provide plausible explanations for the divide between the reception of science and literature. We provide a semiotic analysis of a scientific article that has had significant impact in the field of molecular biology with profound medical implications. Furthermore, we show how the structural and semiotic characteristics of literary texts are also evident in the scientific papers, and we address how these characteristics can be applied to scientific prose in order to propose a model of scientific communication that reaches the public. By applying this theoretical framework to the analysis of both scientific and literary communication, we establish parallels between primary scientific texts and literary prose.

An open challenge

In December 2001, proponents of open access (OA) to peer‐reviewed literature established a new set of ideals for scientific communication. The model they proposed would make accepted scientific papers freely accessible on the world wide web and, to cover the costs for editorial services, would charge the authors instead of relying on traditional subscription‐based income (Budapest Open Access Initiative). More than 3,000 journals now publish under this model, which is receiving growing support from public and private funders, libraries and research institutions. The intrinsic appeal of the OA philosophy and its supporter's efforts have also encouraged funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, MD, USA), and private foundations, such as the Wellcome Trust (London, UK), to institute policies that mandate public availability of the research they support in OA repositories. However, the impact and future of OA in scientific publishing and the economic sustainability of OA models are so far unclear. Other questions also remain: which journals are most likely to be affected—negatively or positively—by OA? If OA has to rely partly on subsidies from public or private funders to survive, and if legislation mandates authors to post accepted papers on government‐run repositories, is there a danger that OA publishers could lose their independence? Here, I review the history and current status of OA publishing, discuss its advantages and disadvantages, and consider the feasibility of interference from funding agencies. I will also discuss the possible medium‐ and long‐term financial outlook for medical and scientific publishers, and propose a business model that both provides the public with access to user‐friendly summaries of the latest research and allows authors to decide how their paper is to be published. The initial support for the OA model of scientific communication came mainly from the scientific community and librarians, who are under …

Ethics in the Societal Debate on Genetically Modified Organisms: A (Re)Quest for Sense and Sensibility

Via a historical reconstruction, this paper primarily demonstrates how the societal debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) gradually extended in terms of actors involved and concerns reflected. It is argued that the implementation of recombinant DNA technology out of the laboratory and into civil society entailed a “complex of concerns.” In this complex, distinctions between environmental, agricultural, socio-economic, and ethical issues proved to be blurred. This fueled the confusion between the wider debate on genetic modification and the risk assessment of transgenic crops in the European Union. In this paper, the lasting skeptical and/or ambivalent attitude of Europeans towards agro-food biotechnology is interpreted as signaling an ongoing social request – and even a quest – for an evaluation of biotechnology with Sense and Sensibility. In this (re)quest, a broader-than-scientific dimension is sought for that allows addressing the GMO debate in a more “sensible” way, whilst making “sense” of the different stances taken in it. Here, the restyling of the European regulatory frame on transgenic agro-food products and of science communication models are discussed and taken to be indicative of the (re)quest to move from a merely scientific evaluation and risk-based policy towards a socially more robust evaluation that takes the “non-scientific” concerns at stake in the GMO debate seriously.

Impacto da Internet no fluxo da comunicação científica em saúde

Communication flow of scientific information has been restructured with the development of new technologies and the Internet and their impact on social relations worldwide. The production of scientific knowledge has also been influenced by these cultural, social and economic changes and has contributed to new patterns of scientific communication. The objective of the study was to present the traditional scientific communication model and its evolution to electronic scientific communication stimulated by the use of electronic media and Internet and networking. While the traditional model is based on printed publications, the new one focuses on electronic publishing and open unlimited access to published literature. The challenges faced are in using all the potential of electronic media for improving traditional communication flow of scientific information and defining policies to support the new model of scientific communication to ensure quality, preservation and dissemination of information as a common good.

Hacia un modelo de comunicación en salud pública en América Latina y el Caribe

So far, there have been no bibliometric or scientometric studies that make it possible to examine, with quantitative, retrospective, and comprehensive criteria, the scientific output on public health in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Further, the weakness of the existing information systems makes it impossible to examine the relevance, quality, and impact of this scientific output, with a view to evaluating it in terms of societal needs and existing patterns of scientific communication. This article presents the results of a bibliographic analysis of the scientific output in the area of public health in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ultimate goal of the analysis is to build a model of scientific communication in this field, to help researchers, managers, and others working in the area of public health to make decisions and choose actions to take. We conducted a literature review in order to identify the distribution of publications on public health that were produced by LAC researchers and published in each of the LAC countries from 1980 through 2002. The review used the Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Saúde Pública (LILACS-SP) (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Public Health) bibliographic database. That database is operated by the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), which is in São Paulo, Brazil. We processed the LILACS-SP data using two software packages, Microsoft Excel and Bibexcel, to obtain indicators of the scientific output, the type of document, the language, the number of authors for each publication, the thematic content, and the participating institutions. For the 1980-2002 period, there were 97,605 publications registered, from a total of 37 LAC countries. For the analysis presented in this article, we limited the sample to the 8 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that had at least 3,000 documents each registered in the LILACS-SP database over the 1980-2002 study period. In descending order of the number of publications registered, the 8 nations were: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Those 8 countries were responsible for 83,054 publications (85.10% of the total of 97,605 registered documents produced by the 37 LAC countries). Of those 83,054 publications from the 8 countries, 56,253 of them (67.73%) were articles published in scientific journals and 24,488 were monographs (29.48%). The proportion of works produced by two or more coauthors was relatively high (56.48%). The 56,253 articles appeared in a total of 929 different journals. Of the 929 journals, 91 of them published at least 150 articles over the study period. In descending order, LAC journals with the largest number of articles on public health were: Revista de Saúde Pública (Brazil); Cadernos de Saúde Pública (Brazil); Revista Médica de Chile; Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición (Venezuela); and Salud Pública de México. The 91 journals that published at least 150 articles represented 29 different specialties. The most common of the specialties for the 91 journals were general medicine (18 journals) and pediatrics (10 journals). In descending order, the populations that the publications dealt with primarily were human beings in general, females, males, and adults; and, in descending order, a relatively small number of publications dealt with pregnant women and middle-aged or elderly persons. The topics most often covered in the publications were risk factors, health policy, and primary health care, as well as family doctors in the case of Cuba. This research produced a preliminary model of communications in public health in LAC countries that will hopefully help lay the groundwork for further research to develop a model of scientific communication in LAC nations.

Repercusión de un descubrimiento Big Science, de acuerdo con dos modelos de comunicación científica: el caso del quark top

We present a bibliometric analysis of the impact measured in terms of publications and citations associated to the discovery of the elementary particle top quark, which was reached in an environment of Big Science experiments performed by the multi-institutional collaboration DO (Detector 0). We consider the period from 1994 to 2002, which corresponds to the participation of Mexican researchers in this Big Science discipline. The methodology used includes the identification and compilation of papers and existing citations of two information systems: SPIRES and SCI. The former is a representative of the informal model of scientific communication and the latter of the formal one. The resulting patterns of publication and citation of both models of communication were compared; our results identify a process of double publication-citation: one based on the versions of e-prints of the documents and an other one on the final versions of the papers published in scientific journals.

‘Physics and fashion’: John Tyndall and his audiences in mid-Victorian Britain

This paper explores how the physicist John Tyndall transformed himself from humble surveyor and schoolmaster into an internationally applauded icon of science. Beginning with his appointment as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution in 1853, I show how Tyndall’s worries about his social class and Irish origins, his painstaking attention to his lecturing performance and skilled use of the material and architectural resources of the Royal Institution were vital to his eventual success as a popular expositor and ambassador for science. Secondly I explore the implications of Tyndall’s ‘popularity’ with respect to debates over the meaning and value of scientific ‘popularisation’. In support of recent work challenging diffusionist models of science communication, I show how Tyndall’s interactions with his audiences illustrate the symbiotic relationship between producer and consumer of ‘popular’ science. By examining the views of Tyndall’s critics—notably the ‘North British’ group of physicists—and his defenders and rivals in the domain of popular scientific lecturing, I show that disputes over Tyndall’s authority reflected anxieties about what constituted popular science and the transient boundaries between instruction and entertainment. The term ‘popularisation’ enjoyed many different uses in these debates, not least of all as a rheorical device with which to either exalt or destroy a scientist’s credibility.

Transferência de informação e transferência de tecnologia no modelo de comunicação extensiva: a babel.com

The automation of the communication techniques gives relevance to extensive communication where the focus is not only on the information storage but also on the dispersion and universal use of the information. The vision brought about by the theory of systems reveals the extensive model and different information practices where the institutions and individuals develop a collective role, depending on a policy of information transfer. The information systems, consequently, act in a production line that control and appraise policies, objectives and goals possible by formal and informal structures mediation for the treatment and dissemination of the contents. In a traditional scientific communication model, that privileges the information storage, bookstores, publishers and traditional libraries are the principal mediators in the production, storage and dissemination of documents. In opposition, the extensive communication is a dynamic information system, in a scenario of interactive and multidimensional stocks, characterized by the insert of tools that promotes the interactivity, the hypertextuality and the hypermidiation.

The changing face of scientific discourse: Analysis of genomic and proteomic database usage and acceptance

AbstractThe explosion of the field of molecular biology is paralleled by the growth in usage and acceptance of Web‐based genomic and proteomic databases (GPD) such as GenBank and Protein Data Bank in the scholarly communication of scientists. Surveys, case studies, analysis of bibliographic records from Medline and CAPlus, and examination of “Instructions to Authors” sections of molecular biology journals all confirm the integral role of GPD in the scientific literature cycle. Over the past 20 years the place of GPD in the culture of molecular biologists was observed to move from tacit implication to explicit knowledge. Originally journals suggested deposition of data in GDP but by the late1980s, the majority of journals mandated deposition of data for a manuscript to be accepted for publication. A surge subsequently occurred in the number of articles retrievable from Medline and CAPlus using the keyword “GenBank”. GPD were not found to a new form of publication, but rather a fundamental storage and retrieval mechanism for vast amounts of molecular biology information that support the creation of scientific intellectual property. For science to continue to advance, scientists unequivocally agreed that GDP must remain free of peer‐review and available at no charge to the public. The results suggest that the existing models of scientific communication should be updated to incorporate GDP data deposition into the current continuum of scientific communication.

The views of scientific experts on how the public conceptualize uncertainty

Scientific experts (drawn from scientific institutions, universities, industry, and government) were interviewed about how they thought the general public might handle information about uncertainty associated with risk analysis. It was found that, for many people within the scientific community, there was a widespread belief that the general public were unable to conceptualize uncertainties associated with risk management processes. Many scientists thought that providing the public with information about uncertainty would increase distrust in science and scientific institutions, as well as cause panic and confusion regarding the extent and impact of a particular hazard. It was concluded that scientists still appear to be subscribing to the deficit model of science communication, and it is vital that effective mechanisms for communicating about risk uncertainty with the public must be developed as a matter of urgency, particularly as increased transparency in risk management processes means that scientific uncertainties associated with risk analysis become more likely to be the subject of public scrutiny and debate.