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The process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized.

An act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas.

Aristotle further distinguished between eupraxia (εὐπραξία, "good praxis") and dyspraxia (δυσπραξία, "bad praxis").

Pathways to Praxis

Need for more longitudinal studies.

Fragmented and changing

publication patterns.

Need for analytical innovation.

Journey Across the Continuum of Science Communication Research and Practice

Changing information behaviour and attitude-formation: Systemic changes in the digitalised media environments are not yet sufficiently understood.

Research dominated by Public Understanding and media studies.

Prof. Alexander Gerber

Research Director, Institute for Science & Innovation Communication

Chair of Science Communication, Rhine-Waal University

Rapidly changing media systems: Digitisation brings about not only new means and tactics but even entirely new actors in communication.

Research / practice disconnect

ag@hsrw.eu | a.gerber@inscico.eu

@inscico

alexandergerber

Dominance of authors from North America and Europe.

Research Gaps

Prevalence of male authors, especially corresponding authors.

Evaluation of policy impacts: How to measure and compare the impact of communication on science and innovation policy and regulation is another research gap.

Challenges

Rare disciplinary contexts and some life sciences focus.

Research agenda driven by specific issues and controversies.

Communication Governance: Research funders increasingly expect or even require specific forms of communication as part of their funding and/or assessment of proposals and results.

Significant publics missing from science communication research.

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field/

Gerber et al. (2020): SCR Field Analysis. Edition innovare.

13 April 2021

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field/

Gerber et al. (2020): SCR Field Analysis. Edition innovare.

Bibliometric & content analyses (I)

Topics beyond public understanding, attitudes or media studies

(7 samples, 4 of them total-population, N= 3,133)

  • 3 core SCR journals PUS, SCX, JCOM [n=2,797]

(at the time of the research design still without FCOM, SfA, etc.)

Dr. Wolfgang Merten

Dr. Jennifer Metcalfe

Bernd Müller

Nicole Warthun

Project Team:

Dr. Peter Broks

Markus Gabriel

Lars Lorenz

Dr. Julia Lorke

  • 3 highly visible outlets to compare: Nature, Science, Scientific American [search string “Science Communication”; n=330, incl. 73 false-positives]

Longitudinal and experimental research studies

  • “Major Works in Public Communication of Science” (Bucchi / Trench 2016) [n=79, PUS papers obviously not analysed twice]

Involve more specific publics and actors

@inscico

External Advisors:

Prof. Martin Bauer (LSE); Dr. Ulrich Herb (scinoptica);

Prof. Dietram Scheufele (University of Wisconsin Madison);

Brian Trench (PCST Network)

Research Support Staff:

Hannah Bollmann, Cora Klockenbusch, Lina Kryvoruchko, Marie Loedige, Christian Moll, Frederike Oetker, Alina Piechulek, Arne Sander, Alicia Teschner, Allison Zaman

Specific disciplines outside the life and environmental sciences

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field/

Gerber et al. (2020): SCR Field Analysis. Edition innovare.

Research

Recommendations

Develop theoretical foundations further

Online surveys

Bibliometric & content analyses (II)

(semi-structured, before and after the bibliometrics)

Average response rate: 59%

Encourage a mix of research methods and the use of new tools

Methodology

  • Content analysis calibrated with a randomised, stratified sample of 7% data

  • Inter-coder reliability between nine research assistants calculated by means of Krippendorff’s alpha (nominal)

Grey literature

[Systematic review of 55 publications analysed in detail]

More ‘horizontal’ Systems Research

2 series of interviews

(semi-structured, virtual) with an expert panel [2x18]

  • Basic scientometric data: Journal, Title, Publication Date, Issue, Corresponding author and up to four co-authors, Affiliations, Countries based on affiliation, Abstract, Genders of all authors
  • Content variables: Type of publication, Context cluster, Context discipline, Topic cluster, Topic detail, Participants, Target group, Research focus, Research timing, Research method, Data analysis method
  • Hon. Prof. Hans Peter Peters
  • Prof. emer. Susanna Priest
  • Prof. Mike Schäfer
  • Prof. Dietram Scheufele
  • Dr. Maarten van der Sanden
  • Prof. Emma Weitkamp

Foster international collaboration

  • Toss Gascoigne
  • Prof. Richard Holliman
  • Prof. Alan Irwin
  • Prof. Joan Leach
  • Prof. Bruce Lewenstein
  • Dr. Niels Mejlgaard
  • Prof. Brigitte Nerlich
  • Prof. Ayelet Baram-Tsabari
  • Prof. Massimiano Bucchi
  • Michel Claessens
  • Prof. Lloyd Davis
  • Prof. Emily Dawson
  • Prof. Edna Einsiedel
  • Dr. Birte Fähnrich

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field/

Gerber et al. (2020): SCR Field Analysis. Edition innovare.

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field/

Gerber et al. (2020): SCR Field Analysis. Edition innovare.

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field

Rapidly changing media systems: Digitisation brings about not only new means and tactics but even entirely new actors in communication.

Praxis

Communication Governance: Research funders increasingly expect or even require specific forms of communication as part of their funding and/or assessment of proposals and results.

  • Neither side takes sufficient notice of the other’s priorities, challenges and solutions.
  • Untapped potential for transfer and collaboration
  • cf "Manifesto on Evidence-based SciComm"

(Jensen&Gerber 2020)

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00078

  • Multidisciplinarity may provoke misunderstandings due to jargons, cultivate silos and limit visibility.
  • Reduce fragmentation or learn how to deal with the diversity of our field?

Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

(Picture: Cover of the 1566 bilingual edition in Greek & Latin)

  • Long-tail pattern

Dozens of relevant journals; 471 in Borchelt's (2012) GScholar analysis

Disciplinary foci in SCR

  • Long-tail pattern

Dozens of relevant journals; 471 in Borchelt's (2012) GScholar analysis

#SciCommSci

  • Big data from here

Machine learning approach calibrated by the coded data; Both semantic and keyword search proven insufficient

  • Grey lit bottomless

Tens of thousands of project reports and conference proceedings, books and blog posts, etc.

http://ScienceComm.science/the-research-field/

Evaluation of policy impacts: How to measure and compare the impact of communication on science and innovation policy and regulation is another research gap.

A note for the Trekkies: “Praxis” was the name of a Klingon moon, destroyed in the 1991 science fiction film “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (the last one featuring the entire cast of the original series).

Picture: USS Excelsior weathers the shock wave generated by the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis. This special effect (the Praxis Effect) has since been used in countless action films.

  • Grey lit bottomless

Tens of thousands of project reports and conference proceedings, books and blog posts, etc.

  • Big data from here

Machine learning approach calibrated by the coded data; Both semantic and keyword search proven insufficient

  • 3% of research papers longitudinal, and decreasing.
  • Longitudinal, comparative and systemic research needed to understand how contents and channels, actors and audiences interrelate.
  • Neither side takes sufficient notice of the other’s priorities, challenges and solutions.
  • Untapped potential for transfer and collaboration
  • cf "Manifsto on Evidence-based SciComm"

(Jensen&Gerber 2020)

Methods used in SCR

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