Busy researchers unknowingly overlook a key aspect of research communication: science communication! At its core, science communication is primarily geared towards lay audiences, policymakers, and other non-experts. This blog post identifies strategies for effective science communication and describes some of the most established methods used by science communicators worldwide.

Why Communicate Your Science? 

Researchers often wonder why it is important to communicate their research findings to non-experts. However, there are multiple reasons for participating in science communication activities. For instance, it is important to simplify your research findings and communicate them to policymakers, who can then use them to shape public policies. It is equally important to communicate your research to taxpayers who indirectly fund it through government funding agencies. Press and media personnel also need to be apprised of your key findings to help spread the message through website posts, blogs, videos, and other modes of communication. While audiences such as students, industry professionals, and practitioners can derive significant benefits from simplified research, peers from a different (or sometimes related) discipline can use it to establish collaborations. Lastly, researchers can effectively leverage the power of science communication to combat misinformation across study disciplines.   

A recent Nature Portfolio survey showed that 97% (N = 516) of the participating researchers believed that communicating their research to the general public was important. 

Effective and Ethical Storytelling 

Good researchers should also be good storytellers. Many TED Talk speakers manifest this ideal combination. Every research story should answer these four key questions:  

• Why? (Why was the study undertaken in the first place?)  

• How? (How did you conduct the study?) 

• What? (What were the most interesting results?) 

• So What? (What are the real-world implications of these results?) 

Strong narratives can engage and persuade. However, as responsible science communicators, researchers must always avoid exaggerating their study results while conveniently hiding the associated limitations. Such an approach can seriously hamper the communication process and adversely impact public trust in research.  

While working as a science communicator a few years ago, I received a client note from a principal investigator in Japan requesting that all study limitations be clearly mentioned in the press release and that none of the results be overstated. This is exactly how science communication works: simplifying and conveying key scientific findings without exaggerating results or hiding study limitations.  

Finally, researchers must also make it a point to communicate their findings without oversimplifying them. However, they must also not include excessive jargon in their communications. Through practice, researchers come to know where to draw the line. Of course, there is no “one size fits all” recommendation for effective science communication. Researchers must therefore customize each communication for the intended audience.     

Methods Used to Communicate Science      

Various methods, as listed below, are generally used to facilitate the process of science communication:  

Press Releases: Popular portals such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s EurekAlert! host press releases shared by researchers and research institutes from across the globe. These press releases often get picked up by journalists. Many popular science communication websites, such as phys.org, sciencedaily.com, etc., then adapt the content from these press releases and share it with their target audiences. These websites have a large following from around the world, and research highlighted here gives a boost to the respective article's Altmetric score.           

University Webpages/Blogs: Research universities commonly maintain webpages dedicated to the latest research updates from across disciplines. Many principal investigators and research groups also maintain blogs highlighting the latest publications from their respective laboratories. These venues not only offer opportunities for communicating science to the general public but also for attracting talented Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars from across the globe. 

Journal-Led Initiatives: Many peer-reviewed open access journals (e.g., Cureus Journals) promote published research articles via social media posts and dedicated website blogs. For instance, Cureus Journals recently highlighted an article on improving the acceptance of personality tests, published in Cureus Journal of Business and Economics.  

Serving as an essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, Scientific American regularly communicates research findings to over 20 million readers worldwide.    

Social Media and Television: Nowadays, researchers are enthusiastically communicating their study results to global audiences via audio podcasts, videos, and engaging image-based social media posts. Some are even hiring the services of professional animators to accurately depict their key findings using 2D or 3D animation. During the pandemic years, a senior researcher from Boston, Massachusetts, regularly appeared on television to fight misinformation and to demystify the science surrounding COVID-19. 

Expert Talks: Subject-matter experts who regularly publish in good peer-reviewed scientific journals often get invited to public lectures. This provides a fantastic avenue for science communication. Researchers also get opportunities to present compelling, research-backed evidence to policymakers using easy-to-understand language. Such initiatives not only shape policy but also earn researchers mentions in the form of formal citations in published policy documents.     

Several TED and TEDx Talks have consistently emphasized the need for effective science communication. For instance, Jo Filshie Browning, a former Director of Communications at GlaxoSmithKline, in her famous TEDxBasel Talk, describes how science journalists sometimes sensationalize study findings and how good science communicators can successfully combat this type of media-backed misinformation. 

Finally, researchers also employ various unconventional approaches, as identified in this article, to amplify the reach of their work. For instance, some convert their results into music, whereas others leverage the power of film festivals.  

Do you enjoy communicating your research to various target audiences? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.  

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Declaration: This original blog post has been drafted from scratch without using AI.