science communication essays

Science communication is more important than ever. Here are 3 lessons from around the world on what makes it work

Visiting fellow, Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University

Professor, Australian National University

Disclosure statement

Joan Leach receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Toss Gascoigne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Australian National University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

It’s a challenging time to be a science communicator. The current pandemic, climate crisis, and concerns over new technologies from artificial intelligence to genetic modification by CRISPR demand public accountability, clear discussion and the ability to disagree in public.

However, science communication is not new to challenge. The 20th century can be read as a long argument for science communication in the interest of the public good.

Since the Second World War, there have been many efforts to negotiate a social contract between science and civil society. In the West, part of that negotiation has emphasised the distribution of scientific knowledge. But how is the relationship between science and society formulated around the globe?

We collected stories from 39 countries together into a book, Communicating Science: A Global Perspective , to understand how science communication has unfolded internationally. Globally it has played a key role in public health, environmental protection and agriculture.

Three key ideas emerge: community knowledge is a powerful context; successful science communication is integrated with other beliefs; and there is an expectation that researchers will contribute to the development of society.

Read more: Three key drivers of good messaging in a time of crisis: expertise, empathy and timing

What is science communication?

The term “science communication” is not universal. For 50 years, what is called “science communication” in Australia has had different names in other countries: “science popularisation”, “public understanding”, “vulgarisation”, “public understanding of science”, and the cultivation of a “scientific temper”.

Colombia uses the term “the social appropriation of science and technology”. This definition underscores that scientific knowledge is transformed through social interaction.

Each definition delivers insights into how science and society are positioned. Is science imagined as part of society? Is science held in high esteem? Does association with social issues lessen or strengthen the perception of science?

Read more: Engaging the disengaged with science

Governments play a variety of roles in the stories we collected. The 1970s German government stood back , perhaps recalling the unsavoury relationship between Nazi propaganda and science. Private foundations filled the gap by funding ambitious programs to train science journalists. In the United States, the absence of a strong central agency encouraged diversity in a field described variously as “vibrant”, “jostling” or “cacophonous”.

The United Kingdom is the opposite, providing one of the best-documented stories in this field. This is exemplified by the Royal Society’s Bodmer Report in 1985, which argued that scientists should consider it their duty to communicate their work to their fellow citizens.

Russia saw a state-driven focus on science through the communist years, to modernise and industrialise. In 1990 the Knowledge Society’s weekly science newspaper Argumenty i Fakty had the highest weekly circulation of any newspaper in the world: 33.5 million copies. But the collapse of the Soviet Union showed how fragile these scientific views were, as people turned to mysticism.

Many national accounts refer to the relationship between indigenous knowledge and Western science. Aotearoa New Zealand is managing this well (there’s a clue in the name), with its focus on mātauranga (Māori knowledge). The integration has not always been smooth sailing, but Māori views are now incorporated into nationwide science funding, research practice and public engagement.

Ecologist John Perrott points out that Māori “belonging” (I belong, therefore I am) is at odds with Western scientific training (I think, therefore I am). In Māori whakapapa (genealogy and cosmology), relationships with the land, flora and fauna are fundamental and all life is valued, as are collaboration and nurturing.

Science communication in the Global South

Eighteen countries contributing to the book have a recent colonial history, and many are from the Global South. They saw the end of colonial rule as an opportunity to embrace science. As Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah said in 1963 to a meeting of the Organisation of African Unity:

We shall drain marshes and swamps, clear infested areas, feed the under-nourished, and rid our people of parasites and disease. It is within the possibility of science and technology to make even the Sahara bloom into a vast field with verdant vegetation for agricultural and industrial developments.

Plans were formulated and optimism was strong. A lot depended on science communication: how would science be introduced to national narratives, gain political impetus and influence an education system for science?

Science in these countries focused mainly on health, the environment and agriculture. Nigeria’s polio vaccine campaign was almost derailed in 2003 when two influential groups, the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria and the Kaduna State Council of Imams and Ulamas, declared the vaccine contained anti-fertility substances and was part of a Western conspiracy to sterilise children. Only after five Muslim leaders witnessed a successful vaccine program in Egypt was it recognised as being compatible with the Qur’an.

Three key ideas

Three principles emerge from these stories. The first is that community knowledge is a powerful force. In rural Kenya, the number of babies delivered by unskilled people led to high mortality. Local science communication practices provided a solution . A baraza (community discussion) integrated the health problem with social solutions, and trained local motorcycle riders to transport mothers to hospitals. The baraza used role-plays to depict the arrival of a mother to a health facility, reactions from the health providers, eventual safe delivery of the baby, and mother and baby riding back home.

A second principle is how science communication can enhance the integration of science with other beliefs. Science and religion, for example, are not always at odds. The Malaysian chapter describes how Muslim concepts of halal (permitted) and haram (forbidden) determine the acceptability of biotechnology according to the principles of Islamic law. Does science pose any threat to the five purposes of maslahah (public interest): religion, life and health, progeny, intellect and property? It is not hard to see the resemblance to Western ethical considerations of controversial science.

Read more: What science communicators can learn from listening to people

The third is an approach to pursuing and debating science for the public good. Science communication has made science more accessible, and public opinions and responses more likely to be sought. The “third mission”, an established principle across Europe, is an expectation or obligation that researchers will contribute to the growth, welfare and development of society. Universities are expected to exchange knowledge and skills with others in society, disseminating scientific results and methods, and encouraging public debate.

These lessons about science communication will be needed in a post-COVID world. They are finding an audience: we have made the book freely available online , and it has so far been downloaded more than 14,000 times.

• Science communication
• History of science
• Public understanding of science
• Science of science communication

Director of STEM

Community member - Training Delivery and Development Committee (Volunteer part-time)

Chief Executive Officer

Finance Business Partner

Head of Evidence to Action

Scicomm 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Science Communication

• by Sydney Wyatt
• November 02, 2020

As scientists, we constantly engage in science communication, but have you taken a moment to think about what that means and how you could improve your communication? Science Says hosted a SciComm 101 presentation in lieu of our annual kick-off barbecue (thanks, COVID-19) to explore some science communication background, basics, and careers.

When we talk about science communication (scicomm), we are referring to the practice of communicating science-related topics to non-experts, usually in the fields of  science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The primary goal of scicomm is to engage and educate the public through outreach activities. Non-scientists and everyday citizens need to be informed and educated about the scientific issues at hand in order to be fully informed about the world they live in—climate change, vaccines, and COVID-19 are some current issues with a big impact on our lives. The average person only experiences scientific engagement in school and is often met with challenges that prevent them from continued engagement; they may have the understanding that there is only one way into STEM fields successfully, even though this is an inaccurate assumption . This gate-keeping negatively impacts the scientific literacy of the public who vote on policies affected by science like healthcare and environmental protections. Thus, science communication is imperative to improving the accessibility of science to the public.

What does science communication look like?

Who doesn’t like lists? This definitely isn’t an exhaustive one, but we just wanted to give you some examples of ways that you can communicate science. These are just some ideas so that you can think about a method that works best for you! 

• Digital media (videos, podcasts)

Other graduate students hone their skills in video creation and editing, such as on the Science Says Youtube channel . Here, you can talk about specific topics that you are interested in, or make videos debunking some myths about the field you study. You can even record yourself doing an experiment, either one for kids or a more advanced one for high school students interested in understanding research. 

• Writing (books, blogs, journalists, press releases…)

Traditionally, some scientists have written books about their work or their experiences as a scientist. These are usually aimed at the general public, with the intent to tell a story about their experiences. One example of this is Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness , in which she talks about her appreciation for octopuses (not octopi!). In our book club we talk about how she really paints a picture of how octopuses act and make connections with people, even though their experiences are vastly different than that of humans. Scientists don’t have to write long-form pieces either—many scientists write short-form pieces such as blog posts , news articles, and press releases featuring recent research highlights. 

• Outreach (festivals, pubs)

When we think of outreach, many of us think of schools—like a classroom setting. But a lot of the outreach that we do can vary a lot! Science Says (at least, before COVID-19,) frequently goes to Farmer’s Markets to table and talk one-on-one with the public about things like GMOs, agriculture, and other hot-button scientific topics. Science cafés are becoming more popular, especially at bars, where you can discuss science with adults in a casual setting. Check out this list of science cafés near Davis.

• Education (formal/informal) (aka traditional science education in schools vs. museums, camps, other non-school educational settings)

While this can also fall under outreach, some science communication can be dedicated to education itself such as designing classroom lesson plans about exploring the world around them in a scientific manner. Some classrooms will allow graduate students to demonstrate experiments or talk to students about science; there are even opportunities for field trips. It depends on what kind of setting you work best in! 

• Science policy (pitching to and advising policy-makers)

Not surprisingly, many politicians don’t keep up with research. There is a new wave of graduate students interested in science policy, which may involve them running for office or becoming an adviser to politicians at the local, state, or national level.The goal of science communication in this realm is to help politicians make decisions based on evidence from scientific studies. 

• Social media 

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok are quickly becoming platforms for scientists to talk about their research to a very wide audience. Some creative scientists post their artwork or microscopy images on Instagram. Others use TikTok to make short, entertaining videos about their research or even what it’s like to be a scientist. These platforms are a unique challenge for a scientist that is interested in science communication—how can you condense the information you want to convey into less than 280 characters? How do you visualize your research? How do you phrase your work in a way that everyone, ESPECIALLY non-experts, can understand?

Most importantly, you use your science communication skills anytime you talk about science, even with other scientists! Honing your scicomm skills is essential for any researcher. Good communication is critical to giving engaging talks, writing scientific articles, and networking with other scientists.

Who does science communication?

As a scientist, you do! Whenever you are talking about science, even to fellow scientists, you are engaging in science communication. 

Where do science communicators work?

There are a myriad of scicomm careers so here’s just  a sample of them. As a note, many scicomm careers involve lots of written communication so this is a valuable skill you can build with our workshops and blogs . Many of these careers integrate several of the different types of science communication discussed above (writing, social media, digital media, public speaking). Here are just a few examples of scicomm careers:

Academia: professors who incorporate scicomm into their work, news and media departments, colleges and institutes within a university with communications staff Journalism: freelance and full-time writers Informal education (museums, nature centers, etc): educators, docents, exhibit curators, communications and outreach directors Formal education: Science teachers and college professors or lecturers Other science writing: script writers for TV, radio, movies, podcasts; book authors Science policy: state and national level as staff member for a legislator, think tanks focused on science-informed policy and research Industry: science writers, digital communications, technical writers Publishing: academic journals Government organizations based on science (NASA, USGS, NIH, National Labs, etc)

How do you launch a science communication career?

Networking is a huge part of developing a scicomm career. This can be done through professional networks like CapSciComm or by attending conferences like Science Talk and the National Association of Science Writers’ ( NASW ) annual conference. Networking allows you to develop relationships and contacts, and puts you on the radar for opportunities. You may also connect with professionals you want to conduct an informational interview with to learn more about a particular career and necessary skills. 

Finally, build a portfolio to demonstrate your work. You can create your own free website through Wix or similar sources to curate your science writing or art; if you’re more interested in a digital career, make a YouTube channel or a podcast. Be sure to broadcast your portfolio and work on professional social media, whether that’s LinkedIn or your professional Twitter account. 

Science communication basics

There are many ways to prepare for a science communication event, so we shared some of our favorite tools and tips for monitoring our use of technical jargon and developing relatable and understandable talks or presentations. Identify which areas of scicomm you want to work on this year by watching Mary’s recorded portion below and keep an eye out for future Science Says workshops and events that will help you hone and polish that skill!

You can find all these resources and more on our resources page . 

How Science Says can help with science communication

We at Science Says offer a variety of opportunities to build and practice your scicomm skills. From workshops to invited speakers, we host events to build skills like storytelling , writing and digital science communication. We also extend opportunities to practice scicomm through our various blogs , our public science book club and different outreach events . If you’re interested in starting your scicomm career, reach out to us at [email protected] to get involved in planning an event, writing a blog, or brainstorming creative ways to engage the public especially in the current Zoom climate. Happy communicating!

Science Says is a community of UC Davis graduate students, postdocs and early career scientists dedicated to making scientific research interesting, relevant and accessible to everyone. For more content, follow us on Twitter @SciSays .

Primary Category

Complete Science Communication: A Guide to Connecting with Scientists, Journalists and the Public

Science communication is a rapidly expanding area, and a key component of many final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Authored by a highly regarded chemist and science communicator, this textbook pulls together all aspects of science communication. Complete Science Communication focusses on four major aspects of science communication: writing for non-technical audiences and science journalism; writing for technical audiences and peer-reviewed journal writing; public speaking of science; and public relations. It first showcases how writing in a journalistic style is done and provides a guide for colloquially communicating science. Then, the art of writing scientific papers is conjoined to this idea to make technical manuscripts more digestible, readable, and, hence, citable. These ideas are next taken into the spoken word so that the scientist can engage in telling their science like that natural human art of campfire stories. Finally, all of these communication concepts are wrapped together in a discussion of public relations, providing the scientist with an appreciation for the marketing directors and news disseminators with whom they will work. Written in an accessible way, this textbook will provide science students with an appreciative understanding of communication, marketing, journalism, and public relations. They can incorporate these aspects into their own practices as scientists, allowing them to liaise with practitioners in the communication field.

• Cite Icon Cite

R. C. Fortenberry, Complete Science Communication: A Guide to Connecting with Scientists, Journalists and the Public, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018.

Download citation file:

• Ris (Zotero)
• Reference Manager

Digital access

Print format, table of contents.

• Front Matter
• Acknowledgements
• The Art and Motivation of Science Communication p1-11 Abstract Open the PDF Link PDF for The Art and Motivation of Science Communication in another window
• 2: Writing Science Through the Tenets of Journalism p12-36 Abstract Open the PDF Link PDF for 2: Writing Science Through the Tenets of Journalism in another window
• 3: Writing Technical Science Like a Journalist p37-66 Abstract Open the PDF Link PDF for 3: Writing Technical Science Like a Journalist in another window
• 4: Speaking (not) Like a Scientist p67-111 Abstract Open the PDF Link PDF for 4: Speaking (not) Like a Scientist in another window
• 5: The More Common Presentation, the Poster p112-127 Abstract Open the PDF Link PDF for 5: The More Common Presentation, the Poster in another window
• 6: Public Relations and Marketing, The Synthesis of Science Communication p128-182 Abstract Open the PDF Link PDF for 6: Public Relations and Marketing, The Synthesis of Science Communication in another window
• Subject Index p183-191 Open the PDF Link PDF for Subject Index in another window

Advertisement

• Campaigning and outreach
• News and events
• Awards and funding
• Privacy policy
• Journals and databases
• Locations and contacts
• Membership and professional community
• Teaching and learning
• Help and legal
• Cookie policy
• Terms and conditions
• Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Registered charity number: 207890
• © Royal Society of Chemistry 2023

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

A Nature Research Service

• On-demand Courses
• Share & disseminate

Effective Science Communication

For researchers in the natural sciences who would like to communicate their research to a broader audience

8 experts in science communication, science writing and editing, science outreach, engagement and presentations, and the Springer Nature press office

6.5 hours of learning

10–30-minute lessons

1-module course with certificate

About this course

Knowing how to effectively communicate research with non-experts requires a certain skillset that can be learned and developed with practice. This course on ‘Effective Science Communication’ will provide researchers with the core tools and techniques to help them communicate any piece of research, published or unpublished, to a variety of different audiences. It covers the essential steps, including identifying communication goals, understanding different audiences, and crafting a key message. The course also explores the different communication methods and channels available. 

If you would like to preview lessons from the course, you can try a free sample.

What you’ll learn

• Compare different audience requirements to help you tailor your communications
• Select a relevant communication channel for your specific needs in a particular instance
• Understand how storytelling techniques can build a compelling scientific story to communicate your research
• Apply strategies to help you communicate your research in an accessible and persuasive way to a non-scientific audience 
• Tips and techniques for communicating your research via writing, public talks and presentations, social media and media interviews

Free Sample Effective Science Communication - section

13 lessons 6h 30m

Free Sample Effective Science Communication: Free Sample

No subscription yet? Try this free sample to preview lessons from the course

3 lessons 45m

Start this module

Select the dropdown to explore an overview of the course content

• Set your communication goals
• Understand your audience
• Reach your audience
• Identify your key message
• Build on your key message to create a story
• Apply strategies to communicate science to non-specialists
• Write about your research
• Present your research
• Communicate your research on social media
• Discuss your research in a media interview

Developed with renowned science communication professionals

This course contains insights from experts with a wide range of experience, including award-winning science writers, editors and communicators.

Meet the expert panel that have helped shape and refine the content of the course:

Laura Helmuth

Editor-in-Chief, Scientific American

Science and technology editor, The Economist

Director of Researcher and Community Engagement, Digital Science

Advice from experienced science communicators

The course has additional insights through video interviews from:

Lisa Boucher

Press Manager, Springer Nature

Patience Kiyuka

Research Scientist, Kenya Medical Research Institute

Isobel Lisowski

Press Officer, Springer Nature

Agostina Mileo

Science communicator and activist, EcoFeminita

Subhra Priyadarshini

Chief Editor, Nature India

Why should you take this course?

Discover related courses, narrative tools for researchers.

Examine the best ways you can share your research story persuasively with your peers

Advancing Your Scientific Presentations

Communicate your results in an engaging and memorable way

Access options

For researchers.

• Register and complete our free course offering , or try a free sample of any of our paid-for courses
• Recommend our courses to your institution, so that we can contact them to discuss becoming a subscriber

For institutions, departments and labs

Find out which of our subscription plans best suits your needs See our subscription plans

Does my institution provide full course access?

When registering, you’ll be asked to select your institution first. If your institution is listed, it has subscribed and provides full access to our on-demand courses catalogue.

My institution isn’t listed!

Select „other“ and register with an individual account. This allows you to access all our free sample course modules, and our entirely free course on peer review. You might also want to recommend our courses to your institution.

I am in charge of purchasing training materials for our lab / department / institution. Buy a subscription

Start this course

Full course access via institutional subscription only. More info

Institutions, departments and labs: Give your research full access to our entire course catalogue

Image Credits

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Numismatics
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Social History
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Acquisition
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Media
• Music and Religion
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Legal System - Costs and Funding
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Restitution
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Ethics
• Business Strategy
• Business History
• Business and Technology
• Business and Government
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Social Issues in Business and Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic History
• Economic Systems
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Social Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Sustainability
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• Ethnic Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Politics of Development
• Public Policy
• Public Administration
• Qualitative Political Methodology
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Disability Studies
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous
• Next chapter >

Introduction: Why Science Communication?

Dan M. Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School. He is a member of the Cultural Cognition Project, an interdisciplinary team of scholars who use empirical methods to examine the impact of group values on perceptions of risk and science communication.

Dietram A. Scheufele is the John E. Ross Professor in Science Communication and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in the Morgridge Institute for Research. His research deals with the interface of media, policy and public opinion.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, the Walter and Leonore Director of the university’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, and the program director of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. She is the author or coauthor of fifteen books, five of which have received a total of eight political science or communication book awards.

• Published: 06 June 2017
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

The introductory chapter defines a science of science communication, examines efforts to advance scholarship in this area, provides an overview of the contents within the six parts of the handbook, and indicates ways in which communication about the Zika virus relates to each of those parts and to chapters within them.

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

PERSPECTIVE article

Evidence-based science communication.

• 1 Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
• 2 Department of Science Communication, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kleve, Germany

Effective science communication can empower research and innovation systems to address global challenges and put public interests at the heart of how knowledge is produced, shared, and applied. For science communication to play this mediating role effectively, we propose a more integrated and “evidence-based” approach. This commentary identifies key issues facing the science communication field. It suggests a series of prescriptions, inspired by the impact of “evidence-based medicine” over the past decades. In practice, evidence-based science communication should combine professional expertise and skills with the best available evidence from systematic research. Steps required to achieve this outcome include more quality assurance in science communication research, significant changes in teaching and training, and improved interfaces between science communication research and practice.

At its best, science communication can empower research and innovation systems to address global challenges, by improving the relationships with stakeholders in policy, industry, and civil society (see “Quadruple Helix,” e.g., Carayannis and Campbell, 2009 , e.g., 2018ff). Science communication can put public interests at the heart of how knowledge is produced, shared, and applied today, thereby enhancing the benefits of science and technology and mitigating their limitations or risks. Moreover, effective science communication can facilitate the role of research and innovation in developing a more sustainable world. Therefore, it is imperative that science communication plays its mediating role effectively. This view of science communication's value inspires our call in this essay to open a dialogue about integrating science communication research and practice within a new vision for “evidence-based science communication.”

It has now been decades since the notion of “evidence-based medicine” gained a foothold in scholarly discourse. In this commentary, we argue that the field of science communication faces challenges that would benefit from some of the prescriptions that evidence-based medicine offers, in particular, with the aim of helping research and practice take each other's experiences and insights fully into account. This evolution is essential to drive real progress in science communication as a field of practice.

Key Challenges

Science communication today is expected to go far beyond making scientific knowledge more accessible to lay audiences. For example, ambitious notions about science communications potential role can be identified in the European policy prescription of “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI) or efforts to include stakeholders earlier in technology assessment and regulatory processes to establish a more “social” innovation ( Phills et al., 2008 , e.g., p. 39ff). With the growing expectations of 21st science communication, it also becomes increasingly important for this field to be more self-reflective and demonstrably effective. This commentary presents our view of these challenges across both science communication research and practice based on our experience in this field.

Key challenges underpinning this commentary are identified in the first empirical gap analysis for the field of science communication research ( Gerber et al., 2020 , p. 61ff), in particular the following: (i) to build a research corpus with effective transfer mechanisms, so that science communication practitioners can apply research in their work practice, and perhaps even investigate in collaboration with scholars the applicability of potentially useful strategies; (ii) to widen the spectrums of science communication research topics and methods, in particular by extending the existing methodological toolkit in science communication to include more longitudinal and experimental research. Experts contributing to a Delphi study in this science communication research field analysis emphasized that neither scholarship nor practice adequately take account of the other side's priorities, needs and possible solutions: This can be understood as a double-disconnect between research and practice ( Gerber et al., 2020 , e.g., p. 4).

Both authors of this essay have worked in science communication practice and research, and especially at the interface between the two domains over many years in this evolving field. In this time, we have seen many challenges that trouble the research/practice interface in science communication (e.g., see Fischhoff, 2013 , e.g., p. 14038). Many of these challenges have been raised in one form or another in empirical studies of science communication research and practice (e.g., Holliman and Jensen, 2009 ; Gerber, 2014 ; Jamieson et al., 2017 ; Gerber et al., 2020 ). Ironically, the challenges begin with communication about science communication evidence (see Table 1 ). The framework suggested here, based on our experience, addresses four usually sequential steps of a “Knowledge Cascade,” which is addressed on four levels, namely Relevance, Accessibility, Transferability, and Quality assurance.

Table 1 . The science communication knowledge cascade: key challenges at the interfaces between research and practice.

It is both self-evident and revealing that there is limited empirical evidence that speaks to the generalizations and truth claims presented in the table above based on our practical experience across the research-practice divide in science communication. We think the sparse research available on these topics highlights the need for more evidence-based integration and mutual learning to more systematically clarify the state of play.

Beyond strengthening the links between research and practice and establishing additional opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration, there are numerous challenges at a practical level to implementing evidence-based approaches. These challenges run deep, with barriers embedded in science communication training, norms and values that drive practice (e.g., see Jensen and Holliman, 2016 ).

Evidence-Based Science Communication (EBSC): Pathways Forward

A classic editorial in the British Medical Journal set out to clarify the direction that was being advocated for the field of medicine in an article entitled: “Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't.” We would adopt a similar account for defining “evidence-based science communication” as a viable pathway forward. To adapt the language used by Sackett et al. (1996) , p. 71, we are advocating the “conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions” about science communication. In practice, evidence-based science communication involves combining professional expertise and skills with the best available evidence from systematic research, underpinned by established theory. By professional expertise we mean the “proficiency and judgment” that individual science communication practitioners acquire through experience and practice, refined over time through empirical evaluation (cf. Sackett et al., 1996 , p. 71). There are numerous indicators of such professional expertise in science communication, including:

• Applying social science research and theory when designing science communication activities to avoid well-known pitfalls and improve the odds of success.

• Planning, developing, and applying objectives in a logical way to address the needs of specific stakeholders or audiences.

• Following good ethical principles including informed consent for participation and responsible data protection and management.

• Being open and transparent about the nature of the funding, organizations involved and influences on the design of science communication activities

• Ensuring that appropriate and relevant communication skills are developed and applied for a given science communication challenge.

• Being inclusive and welcoming of those who are often marginalized or excluded, both in the development and delivery of science communication activities.

• Willingness and capability to reflect on limitations in one's own communication objectives and strategies despite institutional constraints and agendas, even if this may invalidate previously accepted practices.

• Committing to continually improve practice based on ongoing collection and analysis of evaluation evidence ( Jensen, 2014 , 2015a ).

• Being learning-oriented, focusing on continual professional improvement and sharing of new findings to aid others.

• Working to make any given science communication activity as resource efficient as possible to ensure that opportunities for positive impact are not squandered.

It will be clear from the points above that we believe that “using robust social scientific evidence […] to ensure success should be viewed as a basic necessity across the sector” ( Jensen, 2015b , p. 13). Applying well-established principles of good communication (e.g., Spitzberg, 1983 ) should be a basic expectation of science communication practice for professionals and their funders.

Just as in evidence-based medicine, EBSC must be expected to “invalidate previously accepted” practices and “replace them with new ones that are more powerful, more accurate, more efficacious” ( Sackett et al., 1996 , p. 71). What counts as effective science communication practice depends on the institutional, local and cultural context. The nature of the science communication evidence base and how to define satisfactory evidence is a matter that requires elaboration aimed at the research community in science communication, which we will develop in a separate essay. Here, we wish to emphasize that science communication research should be providing relevant, accurate , and timely insights that practitioners can use. Indeed, the issues we wish to raise are not only about a deficit of evidence in practice, but also a lack of sufficient applicability, mutual appreciation and collaboration, explained in more detail below (inspired by Heneghan et al., 2017 ).

We fully recognize that our diagnosis of the problem and perspective on pathways forward will face criticism. Some of that criticism may fall along the lines of prior critiques of evidence-based medicine, including the idea that evidence-based science communication is “old hat,” a “dangerous innovation,” “perpetrated by the arrogant,” and a move to “suppress” science communicators” or researchers' professional “freedom” ( Sackett et al., 1996 , p. 73). Clearly “evidence” in science communication and beyond will always be contested and provisional, but it nevertheless provides the strongest pragmatic basis for making improvements in practice.

We need to have this debate as a field, including practitioners, researchers and those–like the two of us–that work across these two domains. This commentary is meant to cultivate reflexivity in our community by initiating a discussion about the value, quality, and effectiveness of what we are practicing and researching. Many of the questions posed in and even resulting from this commentary are expected to trigger a discussion about fundamental principles and practices in our field. At the same time, however, we also hope that general issues, such as querying how relevant research should be expected to be for practice, will not overshadow the very concrete issues we are raising about how to use existing evidence and experience on both sides to empower science communication to live up to its potential in the interest of a world that desperately needs it more than ever. This is also why this commentary does not attempt to provide easy solutions but instead welcomes and explicitly invites dialogue about the pathways forward for our field.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The reviewers, JR and BW, declared a past collaboration with one of the authors, EJ, to the handling editor.

Acknowledgments

The authors are deeply grateful for the reflexivity provoked in the long process of developing this commentary by numerous inspiring discussions with friends and colleagues working in science communication research and practice around the world.

Carayannis, E. G., and Campbell, D. F. J. (2009). 'Mode 3' and 'Quadruple Helix': toward a 21st century fractal innovation ecosystem. Int. J. Technol. Manage. 46, 201–234. doi: 10.1504/IJTM.2009.023374

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Fischhoff, B. (2013). The science of science communication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 110, 14031–14032. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1312080110

Gerber, A. (2014). “Science caught flat-footed: how academia struggles with open science communication,” in Opening Science – The Evolving Guide on How the Internet is Changing Research, Collaboration and Scholarly Publishing , eds S. Bartling and S. Friesike (Wiesbaden: Springer), 73–80. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8_4

Gerber, A., Metcalfe, J., Broks, P., Lorke, J., Gabriel, M., and Lorenz, L. (2020). Science Communication Research: An Empirical Field Analysis (Government Report) . German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Google Scholar

Heneghan, C., Mahtani, K. R., Goldacre, B., Godlee, F., Macdonald, H., and Jarvies, D. (2017). Evidence based medicine manifesto for better healthcare: a response to systematic bias, wastage, error and fraud in research underpinning patient care. Evid. Based Med. 22, 120–122. doi: 10.1136/ebmed-2017-j2973rep

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Holliman, R., and Jensen, E. (2009). “(In)authentic science and (im)partial publics: (Re)constructing the science outreach and public engagement agenda,” in Investigating Science Communication in the Information Age: Implications for Public Engagement and Popular Media , eds R. Holliman, E. Whitelegg, E. Scanlon, S. Smidt, Sam, and J. Thomas (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 35–52.

Jamieson, K. H., Kahan, D., and Scheufele, D. A, (eds.). (2017). The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jensen, E. (2014). The problems with science communication evaluation. J. Sci. Commun. 13:C04. doi: 10.22323/2.13010304

Jensen, E. (2015a). Evaluating impact and quality of experience in the 21 st century: using technology to narrow the gap between science communication research and practice. J. Sci. Commun. 14:C05. doi: 10.22323/2.14030305

Jensen, E. (2015b). Highlighting the value of impact evaluation: enhancing informal science learning and public engagement theory and practice. J. Sci. Commun. 14:Y05. doi: 10.22323/2.14030405

Jensen, E., and Holliman, R. (2016). Norms and values in UK science engagement practice. Int. J. Sci. Educ. B Commun. Public Engage. 6, 68–88. doi: 10.1080/21548455.2014.995743

Martin, V. Y. (2019), Four common problems in environmental social research undertaken by natural scientists. BioScience 128. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biz128. [Epub ahead of print].

Phills, J. A. Jr., Deiglmeier, K., and Miller, D. T. (2008). Rediscovering social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review. 6, 34.

Sackett, D., Rosenberg, W. M. C., Gray, J. A. M., Haynes, R. B., and Richardson, W. S. (1996). Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ 312, 71–73. doi: 10.1136/bmj.312.7023.71

Spitzberg, B. H. (1983). Communication competence as knowledge, skill, and impression. Commun. Educ. 32, 323–329. doi: 10.1080/03634528309378550

Keywords: public engagement with research, public understanding of science (PUS), public communication of science and technology, divulgación científica, divulgação científica, science communication

Citation: Jensen EA and Gerber A (2020) Evidence-Based Science Communication. Front. Commun. 4:78. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2019.00078

Received: 21 November 2019; Accepted: 31 December 2019; Published: 23 January 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Jensen and Gerber. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Eric A. Jensen, e.jensen@warwick.ac.uk

† These authors have contributed equally to this work

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Accessibility Links

• Skip to content
• Skip to search IOPscience
• Skip to Journals list
• Accessibility help

Effective Science Communication (Second Edition)

Authors Sam Illingworth and Grant Allen Published May 2020

Download ebook

You need an eReader or compatible software to experience the benefits of the ePub3 file format .

Download direct to your Kindle device for instant, off-line reading

Being a scientist in the 21st century can be extremely demanding. In addition to conducting exceptional research we are expected to communicate it effectively to a variety of audiences, from scientists and students to policymakers and press officers. This book provides a roadmap for how to disseminate your research findings in an engaging manner via a range of channels, such as scientific publications, press releases, social media and outreach. Furthermore, by providing advice and worked examples on how to fund and publish your research, develop additional skills and support inclusive practices, this book provides a comprehensive handbook for how to be a successful scientist. This second edition brings the text up to date and includes additional material, while retaining the combination of clear insight and practical advice that made the first edition essential.

Copyright © IOP Publishing Ltd 2020 Online ISBN: 978-0-7503-2520-2 • Print ISBN: 978-0-7503-2518-9

Book metrics

Export citation and abstract, permissions.

Get permission to re-use this book

Share this book

In order to take advantage of this service, your institution needs to have access to this IOP ebook content.

What is myPrint?

myPrint is a new service, offering individuals at institutions who have purchased IOP ebooks the chance to buy their own personal print-copy, direct from iopscience.org.

The offer is available on any book that your institution has purchased electronically, and are priced at £25/$30 (exc. Ship and VAT) per copy. The books come in a durable paperback format, with full-colour cover, black & white contents, and monochrome illustrations (where present).

We work with our trusted distribution partners, NBN International, to supply the books and deliver them straight to your doorstep. What could be simpler!

For more details on how to take advantage of this service, or to recommend the title to your librarian, please Contact us or Recommend to your Librarian

Front matter

Introduction.

Sam Illingworth and Grant Allen

Publishing work in academic journals

Applying for funding, outreach and public engagement, engaging with the mass media, establishing an online presence, science and policy, other essential research skills, d o i.

https://doi.org/10.1088/978-0-7503-2520-2

Postgraduate readership and above

Published May 2020

Books links

About ePub3

About IOP ebooks opens in new tab

Affiliations

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

About the authors

Dr Sam Illingworth is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Western Australia, with a background in the atmospheric sciences and expertise in public engagement and outreach. Sam writes several successful blogs and over the last five years he has directly engaged with over 30,000 non-scientists, developing and delivering a variety of different science communication initiatives, ranging from community workshops and classroom visits to poetry performances and SciArt exhibitions. He has been an invited keynote speaker at dozens of international conferences and symposia, and has provided science communication training for over 3,000 scientists.

Grant Allen is a Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Manchester and is currently the Director for the Environmental Science degree programme there. He is an editor for several journals and contributes to a range of scientific strategy advisory committees. Grant has featured in many popular science documentaries and has been interviewed live on BBC and Sky News channels discussing topics from volcanic eruptions to flooding. He has also taken part in over 40 radio interviews and provided expert comment for many hundreds of newspaper articles relating to air quality and climate.

Even the most groundbreaking scientific research is of little use if it can't be communicated to the broader scientific community, and to the general public, in a cogent and timely manner. Nevertheless, many scientists struggle to disseminate their results successfully. Effective Science Communication: A Practical Guide to Surviving as a Scientist, by Sam Illingworth and Grant Allen, aims to help researchers do just that. Both authors are successful researchers, and they base their narrative on their extensive personal experience. Comprising nine chapters that work both independently and as a whole, Effective Scientific Communication is a useful handbook for anyone in the scientific world. The authors did a commendable job outlining effective writing and speaking techniques. I also enjoyed the quotations at the opening of each chapter—the cartoons included there are simply delightful! One gap that could be addressed in future editions is a discussion of listening and reading techniques, which take up much of a researcher's time and complete the circle of scientific communication. Nevertheless, this text is a solid manual for novice and established researchers alike. Raj Chhabra, Indian Institute of Technology , India 2021 Physics Today American Institute of Physics Publishing

The cliché is that scientists are not good communicators. Even so, it is rare to read a book that is evidently useful from the title, that is obvious in retrospect but only in retrospect, that provides new information and is a joy to read. For graduates of the school of hard knocks (i.e., life), much of the information in the book has already been (sometimes painfully) learned or is a head slapper. But for those more junior, the book does an outstanding job at providing both a roadmap and detailed set of instructions on when and how to best communicate.

A few to-be-expected (but highly useful) chapters deal with writing research papers, seeking funding and presenting at conferences, after which the book delves into outreach, communicating to media and working with policy makers. Each chapter has hands-on "exercises" that get the reader to practice some of the newly acquired skills, such as write a blog, prepare for peer review or develop an audience plan for a talk. Each chapter also includes charts, checklists, resources for further study, suggested readings and a formal set of references. For those past the middle of their careers, if there were a time machine available, this is one book worth sending to a younger self. And for those just starting a career in science, or for just about anybody without a degree in communications, this is one book that should be required reading.

Bogdan Hoanca 2020 Optics & Photonics News The Optical Society (USA)

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
• v.12(1); Fall 2013

Science Communication to the General Public: Why We Need to Teach Undergraduate and Graduate Students this Skill as Part of Their Formal Scientific Training

Sara e. brownell.

1 Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305;

Jordan V. Price

2 Immunology Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305;

Lawrence Steinman

3 Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305.

Communication of science to the general public is increasingly recognized as a responsibility of scientists ( Greenwood, 2001 ; Leshner, 2003 ), yet how do scientists learn these skills? While scientists are thoroughly trained in research methodologies, analytical skills, and the ability to communicate with other scientists, they usually receive no explicit training in communication of scientific concepts to a layperson audience.

Though most will agree that it is important for scientists to be able to communicate to non-scientists, this is a difficult skill that many practicing scientists lack, likely due to the combination of increased specialization over time and the absence of formal training in science communication. In this opinion piece, we argue that incorporating formal communication training into undergraduate and graduate curricula for aspiring scientists will enhance the quality of discourse between scientists and the lay public. We will provide general recommendations for those interested in developing basic science courses with an emphasis on communication with a layperson audience, with specific examples derived from our own experience developing and implementing a neuroimmunology course designed to promote science communication skills in parallel with mastery of scientific content.

Why it is important for scientists to be able to communicate to the public

The public must be able to understand the basics of science to make informed decisions. Perhaps the most dramatic example of the negative consequences of poor communication between scientists and the public is the issue of climate change, where a variety of factors, not the least of which is a breakdown in the transmission of fundamental climate data to the general public, has contributed to widespread mistrust and misunderstanding of scientists and their research ( Somerville and Hassol, 2011 ). The issue of climate change also illustrates how the public acceptance and understanding of science (or lack thereof) can influence governmental decision making with regard to regulation, science policy and funding. However, the importance of effective communication with a general audience is not limited to hot-button issues like climate change. It is also critical for socially charged neuroscience issues such as the genetic basis for a particular behavior, the therapeutic potential of stem cell therapy for neurodegenerative diseases, or the use of animal models, areas where the public understanding of science can also influence policy and funding decisions. Furthermore, with continuing advances in individual genome sequencing and the advent of personalized medicine, more non-scientists will need to be comfortable parsing complex scientific information to make decisions that directly affect their quality of life.

Science journalism is the main conduit for the dissemination of scientific information to the public. Much has been written about how the relationship between scientists and the media can shape the efficient transmission of scientific advances to the lay public ( Cook, 2007 ; Bubela et al., 2009 ). Good science journalists are specialists in making complex topics accessible to a lay audience, while adhering to scientific accuracy. Unfortunately, pieces of science journalism can also oversimplify and generalize their subject material to the point that the basic information conveyed is obscured or at worst, blatantly wrong. The impact of a basic discovery on human health can be exaggerated so that the public thinks a miraculous cure is a few months to years away when in reality the significance of the study is more limited. Even though scientists play a part in transmitting information to journalists and ultimately the public, too often the blame for ineffective communication is placed on the side of the journalists. We believe that at least part of the problem lies upstream of the interaction between scientists and members of the media, and exists because i) we underestimate how difficult it is for scientists to communicate effectively with a diversity of audiences and ii) most scientists do not receive formal training in science communication.

Communication to a layperson audience is difficult

Collectively, we agree that scientists need to be good communicators, but communicating science to laypeople is not a trivial task ( Racine et al., 2005 ; Illes et al., 2010 ; Keehner and Fischer, 2011 ). Scientific ideas can be complicated and communication of these ideas often becomes mired in discipline-specific jargon and terminology. However, there is often an assumption that because scientists are experts in their field and think clearly, they are also naturally experts at communicating science to laypeople and can communicate effectively ( Radford, 2011 ). There are certainly notable neuroscientists, such as Oliver Sacks and Robert Sapolsky, who have made their work accessible to the public through popular science writing. However, we do not think that these and other scientists who are literary figures in their own right, including Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, E. O. Wilson, and others, should be presented as evidence of scientists’ innate ability to communicate ( Radford, 2011 ). These scientists have honed their communication skills over many years of practice and have sought opportunities for public discourse far beyond the extent of most researchers.

Developing skills to communicate science at a level that a general audience can understand requires deliberate practice and careful attention to language. For example, scientists are often criticized for failing to discern the difference between jargon and everyday language. Paradoxically, this can be a more different task for an expert in a field than a novice, because the expert is so far removed from the experience of encountering the term or concept for the first time. Professors face this problem in the classroom; while they are experts in scientific content, they may not be experts in what has been called pedagogical content knowledge, i.e., knowing what pedagogy will be most effective for beginners to learn the material ( Gess-Newsome, 2002 ). In parallel, one problem for experts communicating neuroscience to non-scientists may be a lack of knowing effective ways to communicate with non-scientists. Neuroscientists may assume that words like “neuron” or “synapse” are common knowledge, when in fact the majority of the population may not have a working definition of these terms. Additionally, words such as “protein” have different meanings in everyday language (e.g., “protein” shakes) than in a biological context. The gaps between what scientists assume the general public knows and what the general public actually knows could be bridged by refining these communication skills in the training of scientists.

Most scientists do not receive formal training in science communication to the public

As scientists advance in their academic careers from undergraduate to graduate student to postdoc, they become more and more specialized in their chosen discipline or sub-discipline. These sub-disciplines are increasingly disparate, requiring scientists to become better communicators to forge collaborations between disciplines that may even start viewing each other as laypeople ( Kennedy, 2007 ).

Although there are myriad opportunities for scientists to communicate their science to other scientists (e.g., courses with mock grant proposals as the main assignment, lab meetings, departmental retreats, and scientific conferences), there are few avenues for them to communicate, in written or oral format, to a lay audience. One of the few organizations dedicated to improving science communication to the general public is the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University ( http://www.centerforcommunicatingscience.org ), which offers programs for masters and PhD students in scientific disciplines and a traveling workshop, in addition to internet-based opportunities for scientists to explain fundamental scientific concepts to the general public. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) ( http://communicatingscience.aaas.org ) and the New York Academy of Science’s Science and the City program also offer opportunities for scientists to engage with the public ( http://www.nyas.org/WhatWeDo/SciencetheCity.aspx ). Importantly, the aim of these programs is not to train future science journalists, but to provide communication skills to research scientists to enable them to better convey the details and impact of their work to the general public. Efforts and resources such as these constitute significant progress fostering a population of scientists with improved communication skills. However, these opportunities cater to a self-selecting group of scientists who must go out of their way to seek communication training.

At their home institutions, students sometimes have the chance to participate in informal science outreach, such as community events on campus, volunteering at a science museum, or hosting a tour of their laboratory. Neuroscientists may be most familiar with events such as Brain Awareness Week where they are encouraged to teach the public about brain-related topics, often through collaborations with local high schools and museums. However, these activities are relatively informal and infrequent, underutilized by trainees pursuing careers in a research discipline, under-recommended by mentors, and most importantly, most could not be considered formal training in science communication.

Despite the inclusion of science communication as a core competency for undergraduate biology majors ( AAMC-HHMI, 2009 ; AAAS, 2011 ), few undergraduate or graduate science curricula offer coursework-based opportunities for students to practice this skill. We believe that integrating a requirement for communication of science to the general public into undergraduate and graduate curricula would promote the skills and confidence for future researchers to effectively communicate about their work with the general public, and importantly, would not detract from the scientific rigor of the training programs.

An analysis of the curricula of the top ten neuroscience programs in the United States according to the 2010 US News and World Report indicates that none require a course focused on science communication to a layperson audience. According to the descriptions of these curricula on the program websites, most students are required to take specialization courses in neuroscience, statistics, and ethics. Students are often required to practice their ability to communicate to other scientists at seminar series, departmental retreats, or journal clubs, indicating that science communication is seen as a valuable skill. However, there were no requirements for a science communication course to laypeople, either through coursework or more formalized opportunities. Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University offer elective courses in science communication to the public, which is an important first step but will only benefit a small subset of aspiring scientists. The lack of formal, integrated training in communication denotes a critical gap in the curriculum, especially as we strive to produce citizen scientists equipped to communicate effectively with the general public, as well as scientists in other disciplines.

Infusing science communication training into the curriculum: An example

Although there is still a need for widespread curriculum reform to incorporate explicit training ( Chappell, 1998 ), there are a few examples of courses that provide formal training for aspiring scientists to become better communicators to a layperson audience. Here we present an example of one of these courses: a writing-intensive undergraduate and graduate neuroimmunology course that we developed and implemented through the Immunology Program in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. Although the course maintained a primary focus on mastery of basic scientific content, it also gave students the opportunity to develop skills to communicate science to a layperson audience. We believe that the unique format of the course afforded students the practice necessary to improve their communication skills, while remaining focused on scientific content.

Each week, students attended lectures on a current topic in neuroimmunology taught by an expert and read a recent primary scientific paper describing a critical advance in the field. The principal assignment in the course was the writing of a New York Times “Science Tuesday”-style article directed to a layperson audience summarizing the key aspects of the paper and the implication of the findings. To facilitate the writing process, students discussed the primary scientific paper with each other and with graduate student teaching assistants in a weekly discussion section. The students also received feedback on their article from the teaching assistants and had the opportunity to revise the assignment if needed. Students wrote five of these articles throughout the ten-week term, giving them extensive practice translating complicated scientific knowledge to a more accessible – and jargon-free – summary of the main points of the paper.

For a final assignment, students wrote a New York Times-style article on a broader topic of their choosing in neuroimmunology. We used peer feedback as a way to refine the writing. An additional layer of feedback and revision was a formalized mechanism that we developed for the students to seek and incorporate direct feedback from laypersons, specifically defined as people who have not taken college-level biology. Many students highlighted this exercise as one of their favorites of the class.

The goal of the course was not to train future science journalists; rather, our aim was to give future scientists and physicians a better grasp on science communication. According to surveys, students enrolled in the course primarily due to their interest in neuroimmunology and had plans to attend graduate school in biology or medical school, indicating that we attracted our target population.

Additionally, our intention was to promote proficiency rather than mastery. We understand that separate degrees can be awarded for science communication, so we do not propose that one 10-week course can be sufficient for mastery. Our objective was to provide an introduction that laid the foundation for students to become more aware of what it takes to communicate effectively with a non-scientist audience.

We have published a manuscript describing the impact of our neuroimmunology course on students’ perception and confidence of their communication skills ( Brownell et al., 2013 ). Our study indicated that the course positively affected students’ self-confidence in communicating science to a layperson audience and also showed that students were more confident in their writing skills. Notably, student attitudes about the importance of communicating science to the general public were extremely positive, even in the pre-course surveys, indicating that our target population recognized the importance of science communication and was highly receptive to the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to become effective communicators. These results mirror other studies showing that most scientists are open to learning how to better communicate science to the public ( Chappell, 1998 ; Hartz, 1997 ).

Recommendations for developing undergraduate and graduate courses highlighting science communication to the public

To facilitate the design of courses promoting the skills and experience we describe, we provide a set of guidelines for others who are considering designing courses that incorporate an emphasis on science communication with a layperson audience.

Teach communication in the context of basic science

First, we recommend housing the course in a basic science program and teaching communication in parallel with basic science content. If our goal is to equip future scientists and physicians with a broad set of skills for life-long, effective science communication, we believe that upper-level undergraduate science courses should begin to incorporate formalized, layperson-directed communication exercises. Maintaining a focus on mastery of scientific content has the advantage of attracting a target population of future research scientists: students who are not necessarily predisposed to be interested in science communication and plan to pursue research or medical careers, not science journalism. The second advantage is that we feel students take a basic science course more seriously than an elective to fill a communication requirement. In our experience, science-major undergraduates and research graduate students were extremely receptive to the communication elements of the course, indicating in post-course surveys that the NYT-style article exercise provided an innovative approach to grapple with the content of the lectures and primary scientific literature.

Practice doesn’t make perfect, but does improve skills

Second, we recommend that instructors incorporate ample opportunities for practice and revision into the course. While some courses that focus on science communication have only 1-2 science communication assignments ( Poronnik and Moni, 2006 ; Moni et al., 2007 ), we feel as though it was vital for our students to have multiple opportunities to build on their skills throughout the term. Written science communication to laypeople, much like any other writing, improves upon multiple opportunities for revision. We often saw that student writing would swing from one extreme to the other; students would write with too much jargon on their first assignment and then overcorrect in their next assignment, limiting jargon, but losing all scientific complexity. It would often take multiple assignments with the opportunity for several revisions for students to strike the right balance of explaining scientific concepts without using too much jargon. Furthermore, we believe that the improvements over multiple revisions we observed in student writing reflected an increased understanding and ability to interpret the primary literature and grasp complicated scientific concepts, central goals of many upper level biology courses.

Encourage real-world application of coursework to improve student motivation

Third, we recommend that instructors try to find routes to give student coursework a real audience. In our course, we invited panels of science journalists and writers, who discussed strategies of effective communication with students and critiqued their work. A few students had the opportunity to develop written pieces for publication in such venues as the Multiple Sclerosis Discovery Forum, turning their classroom assignments into open-access articles that had real world application for communicating neuroscience ( http://www.msdiscovery.org/news/essays_opinions/323-discriminatory-disease ).

Another option is to publish a newsletter or class blog that could provide information to the public. This could be a way to have the class fulfill a service-learning niche, but perhaps more importantly, this will likely create greater accountability on the part of the student. Students can see that their work can have real and immediate impact. Interfacing with a lay audience is also a good way to check their assumptions of what an average layperson may know. For example, what counts as jargon? DNA? Neurotransmitter? Plasticity? Through direct interactions with laypeople, students can get a better sense of what concepts may be particularly challenging for the public.

Another option for giving student work an authentic outlet would be to partner with student publications that already exist on campuses. Perhaps an issue of a campus publication could be focused on student work from the course. An option appropriate for graduate students may be to partner with scientific journals to help translate complicated scientific information in recent publications to a layperson audience. Currently, the Journal of Neuroscience gives graduate students the opportunity to write reviews of recent articles for an audience of other graduate students; perhaps journals would be interested in expanding this practice to generate articles targeted to a general non-scientist audience.

Expand training to oral communication

Finally, we encourage instructors to be creative in the ways that students can learn to communicate with a non-scientist audience. While it is important for scientists to be able to communicate via uncomplicated and effective writing, it is likely that they will have more opportunities to communicate orally with laypeople. Whether this involves speaking on a National Public Radio program such as Science Friday or at a large fundraising event, scientists need to be able to speak to a diverse audience who may be limited in scientific knowledge.

We focused our course primarily on written communication because i) we wanted to develop students’ writing skills, ii) we used student writing as a proxy to assess their mastery of the scientific content of the course, and iii) we wanted to incorporate extensive draft and revision opportunities. However, the need for formal training of scientists to communicate orally to the lay public is equally important. One of us (S.B.) has developed another neuroscience course that emphasizes oral science communication and has included opportunities for students to improve in both their writing and speaking skills. In this course, the final assignment is a final paper directed to a non-scientist audience and also an oral presentation during which students explain their chosen topic in neuroscience to a panel of non-scientists. These non-scientists evaluate the speaker on the basis of how well they were able to understand the topic.

Other possible ways to incorporate oral communication include having students present their final paper topics to science classes at a local high school, or the organization of a public symposium at the end of the term. Providing students with an authentic communication experience serves the dual purpose of educating the public about a particular topic and ensuring that students take the assignments seriously.

Is it better to teach these skills to graduate students or undergraduates?

We have not differentiated between undergraduates and graduate students because we believe that both populations will benefit from formal scientific communication training. Our course was offered concurrently to graduate students and undergraduates. Surprisingly, we found that the undergraduates often produced work of higher quality than the graduate students. This could be due to undergraduates taking coursework more seriously than graduate students and spending more time on task. However, it could also be that teaching communication skills earlier in one’s training has a larger benefit. Accordingly, we think that incorporating formal training in science communication to a layperson audience early on in science curricula will promote a culture of communication with the general public within scientific disciplines. Further, integrating formal training in science communication at the undergraduate stage will foster the idea that it is important to develop communication skills in parallel with scientific reasoning and research skills.

We encourage other academic communities committed to improving science communication to implement courses incorporating explicit training in communication of science to a general public audience as part of basic science curricula at the undergraduate and graduate level. As we have demonstrated with our neuroimmunology course, science communication skills need not be taught in stand-alone electives, but can be integrated effectively into lecture-based courses whose focus is analysis of primary scientific literature and mastery of scientific content.

It is not sufficient to rely on science journalism or the efforts of a rarified group of literary researchers to be responsible for the public understanding of science. We believe that formal training in science communication can promote the routine practice of scientists actively communicating about their work with a diversity of audiences, including the general public. Building communication skills is a difficult endeavor, involving limitation of discipline-specific jargon and active engagement with the target audience to determine their level of knowledge. However, these skills can be developed in parallel with scientific content knowledge and research training, hopefully with a synergistic impact on aspiring scientists.

• AAAS . Vision and change in undergraduate biology education: a call to action. Washington, D.C.: 2011. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• AAMC-HHMI . Scientific foundations for future physicians. Washington, D.C.: 2009. [ Google Scholar ]
• Brownell SE, Price JV, Steinman L. A writing-intensive course improves biology undergraduates’ perception and confidence of their abilities to read scientific literature and communicate science. Adv Physiol Educ. 2013; 37 :70–79. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bubela T, Nisbet MC, Borchelt R, Brunger F, Critchley C, Einsiedel E, Geller G, Gupta A, Hampel J, Hyde-Lay R, Jandciu EW, Jones SA, Kolopack P, Lane S, Lougheed T, Nerlich B, Ogbogu U, O’Riordan K, Ouellette C, Spear M, Strauss S, Thavaratnam T, Willemse L, Caulfield T. Science communication reconsidered. Nat Biotechnol. 2009; 27 :514–518. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chappell CR, Hartz J. The challenge of communicating science to the public. Chronicle of Higher Education. 1998 Mar;:87. [ Google Scholar ]
• Cook DM, Boyd EA, Grossman C, Bergo LA. Reporting science and conflicts of interest in the lay press. Plos One. 2007; 2 :e1266. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gess-Newsome J. Examining pedagogical content knowledge. Springer; Netherlands: 2002. Pedagogical content knowledge: an introduction and orientation; pp. 3–17. [ Google Scholar ]
• Greenwood MRC, Riordan DG. Civic scientist/Civic Duty. Science Communication. 2001; 23 :28–40. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hartz J, Chappell R. Worlds apart: how the distance between science and journalism threatens America’s future. Nashville, TN: First Amendment Center; 1997. [ Google Scholar ]
• Illes J, Moser MA, McCormick JB, Racine E, Blakeslee S, Caplan A, Hayden EC, Ingram J, Lohwater T, McKnight P, Nicholson C, Phillips A, Sauve KD, Snell E, Weiss S. Neurotalk: improving the communication of neuroscience research. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2010; 11 :61–69. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Keehner M, Fischer MH. Naive realism in public perceptions of neuroimages. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2011; 12 :118. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kennedy D. Approaching science. Science. 2007; 318 :715. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Leshner AI. Public engagement with science. Science. 2003; 299 :977. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Moni RW, Hryciw DH, Poronnik P, Moni KB. Using explicit teaching to improve how bioscience students write to the lay public. Adv Physiol Educ. 2007; 31 :167–175. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Poronnik P, Moni RW. The Opinion Editorial: teaching physiology outside the box. Adv Physiol Educ. 2006; 30 :73–82. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Racine E, Bar-Ilan O, Illes J. fMRI in the public eye. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2005; 6 :159–164. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Radford T. Of course scientists can communicate. Nature. 2011; 469 :445. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Somerville RC, Hassol SJ. Communicating the science of climate change. Phys Today. 2011; 64 :48–53. [ Google Scholar ]

Browse Course Material

Course info, instructors.

• Prof. John Durant
• Dr. Bina Venkataraman

Departments

• Science, Technology, and Society

As Taught In

• Academic Writing
• Nonfiction Prose
• Technical Writing

Learning Resource Types

Science communication: a practical guide, course meeting times.

Lectures: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

Course Aims

• To provide an introduction to popular science communication in the broader contexts of (a) the role of communication in science, and (b) the cultural, practical and policy-related role of science communication in wider society;
• To provide intellectual resources for constructive critical analysis of popular science communication in a variety of real-world settings;
• To cultivate students’ practical communication skills, with particular emphasis on effective speaking, writing and exhibiting on scientific and science-related topics to a variety of audiences;
• To provide students with a range of resources and skills for effective communication of complex material;
• To provide students with the opportunity to undertake a substantial practical project in either science writing or science exhibiting.

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . Broadway Publishers, 2011. ISBN: 9781400052172.

Other required readings (and required audio, video and exhibition materials) are listed separately on the readings page.

Course Requirements and Assessment

The course will comprise two 90-minute seminars per week, at 11:30am – 1:00pm on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the fall semester. The Monday seminars are devoted mainly to seminar discussion of key topics, and the Wednesday seminars are devoted mainly to work (individually, and in groups) on practical communication projects.

Students are required to attend and participate actively in the seminars. Students who are unable to attend a seminar for medical or other reasons should inform the professor in advance. Unexplained poor attendance and failure to participate actively in seminars will affect the overall grade on the course.

Assignments (which may involve reading, listening to or viewing relevant sources before class, written composition, or exhibition-related work) will be set on a weekly basis. It is essential that students should complete pre-class assignments, as this will be essential to effective participation in the relevant seminar discussions.

This is a communications intensive (CI-HW) class. CI-HW subjects are a subset of CI-H subjects concentrating more particularly on the writing process. Given how important revision is to composition, many assignments will be revised. The emphasis in all the CI-HW sections is on writing: the writing process, from pre-writing through drafting, revising, and editing; and the rhetorical dimensions of writing: the audience for whom one is writing, and the purpose for which one is writing—to argue, inform, persuade, explain, convince, and so on.

Grades on the course will be based on the following marking scheme:

Class Calendar and Overview

You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Published: 09 August 2022

Three steps to better science communication

• Katie Yurkewicz 1  

Nature Reviews Materials volume  7 ,  pages 673–674 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

1592 Accesses

1 Citations

27 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Communication

The ability to communicate clearly is an essential skill for scientists, but it is rarely taught. Katie Yurkewicz, Head of Scientific and Technical Communications at Argonne National Laboratory, shares three steps to follow to captivate an audience and craft a compelling narrative for any topic or medium.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles

111,21 € per year

only 9,27 € per issue

Buy this article

• Purchase on SpringerLink
• Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Funk, C., Tyson, A., Kennedy, B. & Johnson, C. Science and scientists held in high esteem across global publics. Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/09/29/science-and-scientists-held-in-high-esteem-across-global-publics/ (2020).

Kennedy, B., Tyson, A. & Funk, C. Americans’ trust in scientists, other groups declines. Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-scientists-other-groups-declines/ (2022).

McSpadden, K. You now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. Time https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/ (2015).

Lupia, A. Communicating science in politicized environments. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110 (Suppl. 3), 14048–14054 (2013).

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Facebook IQ. Capturing attention in feed: the science behind effective video creative. Meta https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/capturing-attention-feed-video-creative (2016).

Dahlstrom, M. F. Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111 (Suppl. 4), 13614–13620 (2014).

Joubert, M., Davis, L. & Metcalfe, J. Storytelling: the soul of science communication. JCOM J. Sci. Commun. 18 , 05 (2019).

Google Scholar  

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA

Katie Yurkewicz

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katie Yurkewicz .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links.

Average web page visit: https://contentsquare.com/insights/digital-experience-benchmark/

Short YouTube tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Ar5_Iwi24

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Yurkewicz, K. Three steps to better science communication. Nat Rev Mater 7 , 673–674 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00472-7

Download citation

Published : 09 August 2022

Issue Date : September 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00472-7

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Techniques for supercharging academic writing with generative ai.

• Zhicheng Lin

Nature Biomedical Engineering (2024)

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Science Communication MSc

London, Bloomsbury

This programme aims to train the next generation of science communicators to be mediators facilitating citizens’ engagement with technologies and the sciences. It combines a thorough practical curriculum in state of the art communication practices, closely connected to the world of work and career opportunities, with a theoretical backbone. 

UK tuition fees (2024/25)

Overseas tuition fees (2024/25), programme starts, applications accepted.

Applications closed

Applications open

• Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class (2.1) Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. There is no specific disciplinary entry requirement for this programme. Applicants with degrees from natural sciences, human sciences, social sciences, or arts and humanities are welcome to apply.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 4

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website .

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

Today, with the rise of populism and concerns that we might be living in the dawn of a ‘post-truth’ era, the relationship between expertise, knowledge and the public have been brought into question; science and technology are shaping our lives in profound ways, bringing a quality of life to some that previous generations could not have dreamed of, while leaving others untouched or feeling left behind. At the same time, science and technology is a significant and growing part of the world’s economy, offering well paid and interesting jobs as well as promising relief from some of the biggest challenges facing us as a planet.  

This MSc in Science Communication sets out to train people to understand and help resolve some of these issues, recognising that good communication underpins many of the issues ahead, but that providing information alone will be insufficient to address tensions that arise between science and society. We recognise that even in the most ‘traditional’ science and tech PR or journalism roles, pumping out good news about science alone will not build the relationships, audiences or credibility that companies, broadcasters – or indeed society – want. To train the next generation of science communicators to be mediators facilitating citizens’ engagement with technologies and the sciences, we will combine a thorough practical curriculum in state of the art communication practices, closely connected to the world of work and career opportunities, with a theoretical backbone. 

Who this course is for

The programme is suitable for students with first degrees in a variety of subjects including natural sciences, social sciences, history, philosophy or art and humanities.

What this course will give you

We have award-winning tutors, public engagement and fantastic academic programmes. As a department, Science & Technology Studies is respected across UCL for our dedication to teaching and learning. We commit ourselves to creating academic experiences that reward hard work. We are research active over an enormous range of topics. Our teaching builds on research not only in our subject specialties but also in the fundamentals of teaching and learning.

Our programme makes unique use of London’s attractions and resources. We have close links with the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Wellcome Library, and UCL Museums & Collections. We also use the city as a classroom, with custom-made walking tours, site visits, and special excursions. The module HPSC0089 Curating Science and Technology is taught at the Science Museum.

The foundation of your career

Our programme provides essential training for students wishing to pursue careers in science journalism, science documentary and filmmaking, science broadcasting, science museums, digital science communication. 

Employability

Through our practical modules, taught by professional communicators, students will be able to start networking in the professional milieu of science communication.  

There may be department and/or student organised alumni events, career events, lecture series, workshops, etc. that allow for networking.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of lectures, tutorials and practical sessions. You'll also be expected to take part in both guided and self-guided personal work. Assessment is carried out through a blend of formative and summative assessment methods.

You will be assessed by a variety of methods, including, essays, different formats of writing (blog post, news brief, press releases, features, profiles, etc.), short films, short podcasts, and presentations (poster, PowerPoint). This culminates in an independent science communication project.

On average it is expected that a student spends 150 hours studying for each 15 credit module – this includes teaching time, private study and coursework. Modules are usually taught in two hour sessions over 10 weeks each term. Practical Science Writing is the exception and is taught over the reading week in Term 1.

A Postgraduate Diploma consisting of one core module (15 credits), five optional modules (75 credits) and two elective modules (30 credits) can be studied full- or part-time. A Postgraduate Certificate, on a full-time basis, consisting of one compulsory module (15 credits) and three optional modules (45 credits) is offered.

The curriculum is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical, with a core of six compulsory modules (three theoretical and three practical), plus a final project. Students will also choose one specialism module from a selection of three and one elective module from the STS module catalogue.

In term 1 students take two theoretical modules (Science Communication in a Global Perspective and Engaging the Public with Science) and two practical modules (Practical Science Writing and Practical Science Broadcasting).

In term 2 students take one theoretical module (Science Communication and Social Justice) and one practical module (Digital Media Skills for Science Communication). They also take one specialist option (Science Journalism, Science and the Publishing Industry or Curating Science and Technology) and one elective module of their choice from the department module catalogue. They also start working on their final project which they submit at the end of the academic year.

Year 1-Term 1: students take one theoretical module (Science Communication in a Global Perspective) and one practical module (Practical Science Writing or Practical Science Broadcasting).

Year 1-Term 2: students take one theoretical module (Science Communication and Social Justice), one practical module (Digital Media Skills for Science Communication) and one specialist option (Science Journalism, Science and the Publishing Industry or Curating Science and Technology).

Year 2-Term 1: students take one theoretical module (Engaging the Public with Science) and one practical module (Practical Science Writing or Practical Science Broadcasting).

Year 2-Term 2: students take one elective module of their choice from the department module catalogue. They also start working on their final project which they submit at the end of the academic year.  

Compulsory modules

Optional modules.

Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MSc in Science Communication. Upon successful completion of 120 credits, you will be awarded a PG Dip in Science Communication. Upon successful completion of 60 credits, you will be awarded a PG Cert in Science Communication.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble accessable.co.uk . Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team .

Fees and funding

Fees for this course.

Additional costs

T here are no programme-specific costs.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs .

Funding your studies

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website .

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this programme of £90 for online applications and £115 for paper applications. Further information can be found at Application fees .

Applicants whose qualifications are of a lower standard may be admitted if they can demonstrate an appropriate academic background and experience in such fields as education, media and communication.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2024-2025

Got questions get in touch.

Science and Technology Studies

[email protected]

UCL is regulated by the Office for Students .

Prospective Students Graduate

• Graduate degrees
• Taught degrees
• Taught Degrees
• Applying for Graduate Taught Study at UCL
• Research degrees
• Research Degrees
• Funded Research Opportunities
• Doctoral School
• Funded Doctoral Training Programmes
• Applying for Graduate Research Study at UCL
• Teacher training
• Teacher Training
• Early Years PGCE programmes
• Primary PGCE programmes
• Secondary PGCE programmes
• Further Education PGCE programme
• How to apply
• The IOE approach
• Teacher training in the heart of London
• Why choose UCL?
• Entrepreneurship
• Inspiring facilities and resources
• Careers and employability
• Your global alumni community
• Your wellbeing
• Postgraduate Students' Association
• Your life in London
• Accommodation
• Funding your Master's

Your browser is not supported

Sorry but it looks as if your browser is out of date. To get the best experience using our site we recommend that you upgrade or switch browsers.

Find a solution

• Skip to main content
• Skip to navigation
• hot-topics Extras
• Newsletters
• Reading room

Tell us what you think. Take part in our reader survey

Celebrating twenty years

• Back to parent navigation item
• Collections
• Chemistry of the brain
• Water and the environment
• Chemical bonding
• Antimicrobial resistance
• Energy storage and batteries
• AI and automation
• Sustainability
• Research culture
• Nobel prize
• Food science and cookery
• Plastics and polymers
• Periodic table
• Coronavirus
• More navigation items

How to get experience for science communication officer roles

• No comments

Five tips to build your skills and see if it’s a career for you

Source: © Tania Yakunova/Ikon Images

Are you a scientist or science student who loves storytelling but is worried about leaving academia? Nicole Mlynarik, scientific communications manager at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences in the US, says structure-loving researchers tend to fear jumping into the free-for-all world of communications. ‘But the industry is starting to create more structure,’ she adds. ‘There are more internship programs, fellowships, and part-time opportunities.’

Here are some ways to get started.

Test the waters

Julie Kiefer , director of science communications at University of Utah Health, says it’s essential to get your feet wet. ‘The best way to see if it suits you is to try it. You might have your idea of what this job is like, but you won’t know until you dip your toes into that world,’ she says. You might find an internship opportunity at your university’s communications office. If you’re in the US, you can apply for the  AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship , which will provide you with a 10-week opportunity to work in a newsroom. Fellows find employment in both journalism and communications.

Start where you are

Can’t do an internship right now? No problem! ‘The fortunate thing about science communication is that it doesn’t take much to get started … especially with the digital tools of today,’ says  Lucky Tran , director of science communication and media relations at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Share the latest research in your area on social media platforms. This will also help you connect with other researchers and build a community. Mlynarik took night classes in science writing in graduate school through her institution’s extension studies programme – look for similar courses on your campus.

Write, write, write

Strong writing skills are coveted in the field. Pick up freelance writing work with science magazines. Working with world-class editors will push you to sharpen your description and interviewing skills, and teach you to write concisely for a more general-interest audience. You can also publish commentary pieces and essays on a blog. ‘It’s important to demonstrate the type of work you can do, even if you’re self-publishing it,’ says Kiefer.

Do your market research

Strike up friendships with the communicators at your institution or in your alumni networks and set up informational interviews with them. Setting up LinkedIn Alerts for communications jobs is also useful passive education, Mlynarik says, because it allows you to see the types of roles that exist for science writers, their salary ranges, and the geographical hubs for these kinds of jobs. You can also join professional societies of writers that are active in your area.

Do what’s best for you

A regular job in science communication isn’t for everyone ‘It’s nice to take a step back and to think about … why did I get into science in the first place? What am I passionate about?’ says  Tal Woliner , chief communications officer at the AAAS. You also need to consider your personal goals. One of the factors that prompted Mlynarik to jump from academia to communications was the need for work-life balance: ‘I can impact the scientific industry more effectively if I embrace my natural interests and skill sets and optimal working conditions’.

More Dinsa Sachan

The chroniclers of science

How to teach university-level chemistry well

How to search for scientific talent

• Culture and people
• Professional development
• Science communication

Related articles

2024-08-29T08:33:00Z

By Dinsa Sachan

Carol Robinson: ‘I really wanted to wave the flag about technicians’

2024-08-30T08:34:00Z

By Rebecca Trager

Chemistry body to create multi-language chemistry dictionary to avoid confusion

2024-08-30T08:30:00Z

By Julia Robinson

How much science should there be in philosophy?

2024-08-29T13:30:00Z

By Vanessa Seifert

Celebrating 200 editions of Classic Kit

2024-08-27T14:03:00Z

By Andrea Sella

Cryptic chemistry crossword #051

2024-08-23T13:40:00Z

By Paul Board

No comments yet

Only registered users can comment on this article., more careers.

The early-career engineer showcasing women in the chemical industry

2024-08-15T08:41:00Z

By Zahra Khan

Long hours are a short-term solution for skills shortages

2024-08-06T08:30:00Z

By Emma Pewsey

Should I stay or should I go?

2024-07-25T09:30:00Z

By Fawzi Abou-Chahine and Ana Jorge Sobrido

Inspiration on a surfboard and in the chemistry classroom

2024-07-23T08:39:00Z

Slow progress reforming academia creates its own generation gap

2024-07-02T11:15:00Z

From baby boomers to gen Z, how do different generations approach chemistry?

2024-07-02T08:30:00Z

By Rachel Brazil

• Contributors
• Terms of use
• Accessibility
• Permissions
• This website collects cookies to deliver a better user experience. See how this site uses cookies .
• This website collects cookies to deliver a better user experience. Do not sell my personal data .
• Este site coleta cookies para oferecer uma melhor experiência ao usuário. Veja como este site usa cookies .

Site powered by Webvision Cloud

Technical and Scientific Communication Major

What is a major in technical and scientific communication writing.

The major is a great fit for creative and imaginative students who are fascinated by the kinds of writing that take place in professional and public situations. For our students, user manuals, university mailers, and social media posts are ripe with meaning and possibilities. They understand the rules and boundaries of writing within professional settings, but also how to break those rules in ways that are refreshing, attention-grabbing, and thought-provoking. Students seek to understand how public audiences read a wide variety of texts. The program teaches them to translate complex information into plain language so that it is accessible to a public audience.

*Available to students starting Summer 2024*

Why Study Technical and Scientific Communication at Virginia Tech?

Our students are excited by challenging questions that come with writing in the 21st century: 

• How do we use writing as a tool for social action? 
• How do emerging technologies change how we write and how users engage with texts? 
• What is the role of writers in shaping a humanistic approach to technology design? 

This program prepares students to write while being focused on target audiences in a thoughtful and professional approach. You will explore the complex relationships between writing, rhetorics, technology, and culture through a humanistic lens. Our graduates go on to create user guides, online documentation, website content, scientific reports, content strategies, and other professional documents.

  3 Study Abroad Programs

  22 Average Class Size

  100+ English Courses Offered

Erica Palladino, '15

Erica works in New York City as a copywriter for a pharmaceutical advertising agency. She gathered experience for this position through several internships and by working as an undergraduate researcher with a faculty member on a vaccination project. Erica also served as a college ambassador, was a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and wrote stories for the Virginia Tech Division of Student Affairs.

Shalini Rana, '18

Shalini graduated with double majors in creative writing and professional and technical writing. During her time at Virginia Tech, her poetry was published in undergraduate publications, Silhouette and Philologia, and received third place in the Steger Poetry Prize. Shalini works as a consultant for CollabraLink Technologies and continues writing. In the future, she plans to complete a poetry M.F.A. program.

Colleen Kelly, '18

While double majoring in professional and technical writing and literature and language, Colleen had an internship with Visa in San Francisco, CA. She was able to apply skills learned in her technical editing and user documentation courses, while being mentored by other Hokie graduates. Following graduation, Colleen is working as an Associate Technical Writer at Visa in Austin, TX.

Margaret Smith, '15

While majoring in professional and technical writing, Margaret worked as a Writing Center Coach, served as a Writing Assistant for the Mining and Minerals Engineering Department, and was the Managing Editor of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences undergraduate research journal. She also interned as an Editorial Writer at Whole Foods Magazine. Margaret is now employed as a Senior Copywriter at a digital marketing company.

Rachel Beisser, '19

Rachel served as co-editor-in-chief of an undergraduate research journal and worked in the English Department. After graduating, Rachel began her career as a junior documentation specialist at Parsons Corporation.

Jess Calvert, ’21

While studying Professional and Technical Writing, English, and Creative Writing, Jess explored career options through internships, study abroad opportunities, and campus leadership experiences. She interned with New York Minute Magazine, and Sierra Nevada Corporation. Additionally, during her London Calling! study abroad trip, Jess gained invaluable internship experience with Richmond & Towers Communications. Jess works as a Technical Writer for Sierra Nevada Corporation in Centennial, Colorado.

Careers and Further Study

What Can You Do with a Technical and Scientific Communication Major?

Jobs Held by Our Graduates

• Technical writers
• Technical editors
• Content strategists
• Copywriters
• User experience researchers
• Usability specialists
• Experience architects
• Social media coordinators

Beyond the Classroom

Experiential Learning

• UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND INDEPENDENT STUDY
• INTERNSHIPS
• STUDY ABROAD
• STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
• STUDENT ADVISORY COUNCIL

Talk to a professor about designing your own research project to take a deeper look at a topic of your interest. You'll work closely with a faculty advisor to plan a course of action and discuss your findings. You can also participate in a collaborative project where you help a faculty member with their research.

Engage in your profession by writing, researching, editing, and making connections with employers across the country. Apply the knowledge and skills you learn in the classroom to the workplace. Internships earn academic credit and provide valuable professional experience. 

We host a faculty-led trip to London, an exchange program with Loughborough University, and a Wintermester Experience that visits different locations each year .  These experiences enrich your understanding of the history and culture of the English language and its literature.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

You will join an active and welcoming community. Our student organizations include the English Club, Linguistics Club, Creative Writing Club, and Sigma Tau Delta. We hold an annual literary festival, Glossolalia, that features original works including readings and performances by students and visiting writers.

Become a member of the PTW Student Advisory Council, a small group of PTW majors or minors who work with faculty as they provide feedback on curriculum, policy, and other aspects of the program from a student perspective.

To learn more about the PTW Student Advisory Council, contact program director  Jennifer Sano-Francini .

What You'll Study

Bachelor of Arts in English Degree

• Including Virginia Tech's Pathways

Technical and Scientific Communication Major Requirements

• Document Design
• Technical Editing and Style
• Creating User Documentation
• Intercultural Issues in Professional Writing 
• Developing Online Content
• Science Writing
• Grant Writing

Minor and Elective Hours

Our program gives you the opportunity to build knowledge in another area by pursuing a minor, double major, or cognate.

120 hrs B.A. English

45 hrs General Education

39 hrs Major Requirements

36 hrs Elective

Campus Life

Virtual tour.

Explore the university through either a guided or self-guided virtual tour.

Discover all that Virginia Tech has to offer inside and outside of the classroom. Our campus life aims to build communities, promote holistic education, and cultivate environments that offer opportunities for leadership, innovation, and service.

Related Programs

How can we help you decide.

Cost and Financial Aid How to Apply

Visit Campus Virtual Tour

Diversity and Inclusion Our Faculty Covid-19 Policy

Email Us Social Media Map

Psychological Science and Public Communications

• Journalism and Facts
• Conducting Research

Essential Science Conversations

October 2021

• Transcript (PDF, 206KB)
• Related resources (PDF, 62KB)

This content is disabled due to your privacy settings. To re-enable, please adjust your cookie preferences.

Psychological scientists often lament that there isn’t greater understanding, appreciation, and application of our science. In this highly interactive webinar, our panel of knowledgeable experts will discuss how psychological scientists can communicate their work to a broader audience.

This program does not offer CE credit.

Alicia C. Aebersold, BA

Chief communications officer, APA.

Daniel Gilbert, PhD

Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University.

Ali M. Mattu, PhD

Jonathan Wai, PhD

Associate professor of education policy and psychology, University of Arkansas.

Mitch Prinstein, PhD

Chief Science Officer, APA.

More in this series

The number of publications among graduate school/faculty applicants, or among those applying for tenure and promotion seems to have increased considerably

September 18, 2024 Live Webinar

Physical activity benefits mental and physical health, yet participation rates are declining.

May 2024 On Demand Webinar

Discussing AI's impact on psychological research: potential to replace human participants, unintended consequences, peer review challenges, and ethical considerations.

April 2024 On Demand Webinar

Panel discusses strategies to combat stigma across clinical, research, educational, and community settings.

March 2024 On Demand Webinar

MS in Technical Communication

Students in the MS in Technical Communication (previously called the MS in Scientific & Technical Communication) develop the knowledge and skills to advance in the field of technical communication while specializing in an area of interest. The program prepares students for positions in online design, software/hardware documentation, information architecture, medical communication, and more. 

Graduate Handbook

Review our  Certificate & MS handbook for current requirements and policies.

MS Program Requirements

The MS in Technical Communication requires  30 credits and requires coursework within and beyond the Department of Writing Studies to support students pursuing niche knowledge in areas of interest such as information design, public health, or policy.

Core Courses (15 Credits)

MS students complete the same five core courses as Certificate students:

• WRIT 5001 : Foundations and Futures of Technical Communication (3 credits)
• WRIT 5112 : Information Design (3 credits)
• WRIT 5501 : Usability and Human Factors in Technical Communication (3 credits)
• WRIT 5561 : Editing and Style for Technical Communicators (3 credits)
• WRIT 5662 : Writing with Digital Technologies (3 credits)

Elective Course (3 Credits)

The elective course allows MS students to specialize their studies in an area of interest. Students select one of the following courses based on their goals and course availability:

• WRIT 4562 : International Professional Communication (3 credits)
• WRIT 4573W : Writing Proposals and Grant Management (3 credits) 
• WRIT 5664 : Science, Medical, and Health Writing (3 credits)

Outside Coursework (9 Credits)

MS students complete nine credits of coursework (typically three 3-credit courses) outside of the Department of Writing Studies. Outside coursework allows students to further specialize and expand their knowledge and skills. Many of our students pursue courses related to the health sciences, user experience and usability, information design, and pedagogy.

Capstone Course (3 Credits)

All MS students must complete  WRIT 8505 : Professional Practice. This course allows students to synthesize what they’ve learned in the MS program to develop a professional portfolio. WRIT 8505 is offered each spring, and we encourage students to complete the course during or near their final term in the program.

Course Cadence

Students typically take one to two courses per term. Students select the number of courses per term that works best for their schedule, and the course load can change between terms as other priorities arise. Current and upcoming graduate-level courses are available in  Schedule Builder .

Catalog Requirements

College Resources for Graduate Students

Visit CLA’s website for graduate students to learn about collegiate funding opportunities, student support, career services, and more.

Student Services      Career Services     Funding & Support

University of South Florida

College of Arts & Sciences

Main navigation, cas chronicles.

From left: Dr. Gregory Perreault, Dr. Mildred Perreault, Dr. Janelle Applequist, and Dr. Fan Yang.

Zimmerman School faculty present research papers during International Communication Association conference

• Michelle Holden, USF College of Arts and Sciences
• August 29, 2024

Accomplishments , Research

Four faculty members from the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications recently presented research papers during the 74th Annual International Communication Association (ICA), which took place in June. The ICA aims to advance the scholarly study of human communication by encouraging and facilitating excellence in academic research worldwide.

Dr. Gregory Perreault , associate professor, presented a paper on joy in journalism.

“A lot of research in journalism studies is really sad: exploring audience hostility, difficult labor practices, and why journalists leave the field. But what I find to be more intriguing is why journalists stay. Noteworthy in all that scholarship is that they’re talking to still-working journalists,” he said. “My research team and I have a data set exploring particular pillars of joy—like generosity, humor, forgiveness—in the life experiences of journalists. Over the next year, we hope to look in particular at how journalists experience generosity (and offer it).”

Dr. Mildred Perreault , assistant professor, highlighted her work focusing on rural journalism and news and disaster communication ecology.

“It is important to share work at the international level so that you can learn more about other countries and also gain a broader understanding of our field. It also helps one to connect with new collaborators,” she explained. “International engagement, like presenting at ICA, is something that distinguishes USF scholars from other scholars at smaller universities, but also helps it align with peer AAU schools.”

She also shared that there were additional networking and engagement opportunities beyond paper presentations.

“I was also part of a group that examined efforts to engage underrepresented groups in academic scholarship about media and communication. That was a great opportunity to have deeper conversations about how to bring new voices into academic spaces.”

She adds that she received some great feedback after her paper was accepted, as well as during the conference, that she can edit for submission to a publication.

“Often the research process is lonely, but conferences make it much more engaging and collaborative. For example, with my work on rural journalism, I was able to participate in a panel discussion with several other scholars in this area. Since it is a niche area, it is a great opportunity to connect with media scholars all over the world who are studying something smaller communities,” she said.

Dr. Fan Yang , assistant professor, and Dr. Janelle Applequist , associate professor, presented their co-authored paper on a meta-analytic and scoping review of digital data-driven advertising.

“Presenting papers at this conference to a wider audience is crucial for several reasons. It provides an excellent opportunity to disseminate our findings and ideas, allowing us to collect constructive feedback from diverse perspectives and seek new collaborations that can enhance the quality and impact of my research. It also aligns with USF's strategic planning goals of engaging broader audiences and furthering internationalization efforts,” Yang explained.

“Presenting our work to a national/international audience contributes to USF's branding and fosters cross-cultural academic exchanges,” she added. “These presentations serve as a platform to showcase The Zimmerman School's cutting-edge research and innovative approaches in advertising and mass communication. This visibility not only enhances the school’s reputation, but also attracts potential students, faculty, and research partners, ultimately strengthening our position as a leader in the field.”

For Applequist, the experience of presenting research at these venues serves as a critical "first step" of her scholarly process. It provides an opportunity to receive and apply feedback from audience members before submitting a study for journal publication. 

“The diverse perspectives offered by colleagues from various fields, institutions, countries, and cultures foster a transdisciplinary approach that significantly enhances the quality and relevance of my (and my team's) work,” she said.

“Feedback provided by an audience member after Dr. Fan Yang and I presented our co-authored study resulted in great conversation regarding how the rigor of our methods (a meta-analytic and scoping review of digital data-driven advertising) could be adapted for more niche areas (e.g., direct-to-consumer advertising in the pharmaceutical industry). These types of studies would serve to inform the field of advertising while providing potential industry partners with critical information for enhancing their daily and annual operations.”

“As a proud member of the USF community, I am committed to publishing high-quality research that showcases our commitment to research excellence. I am very fortunate to be working alongside great colleagues and team members, focused next on grant-funded projects, including a collaboration with BayCare on social determinants of health, and a large-scale NIH-funded study where colleagues and I seek to enhance communication processes throughout clinical trials to address participant retention,” Applequist said.

Yang says she hopes to next deepen exploration of AI's impact on media consumption and human-machine communication.

“We plan to investigate the individual and social implications of AI-driven communicative technologies, as well as expand our studies on AI-powered social robots using cutting-edge tools available in our Media Research Center of The Zimmerman School. Our ultimate goal is to position The Zimmerman School at the forefront of AI research in media research, providing valuable insights for both academia and industry as we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-enhanced media ecosystems.”

Return to article listing

• Accomplishments
• Community Engagement

About CAS Chronicles

CAS Chronicles is the monthly newsletter for the University of South Florida's College of Arts and Sciences, your source for the latest news, research, and events at CAS.