The adequacy of scientific communication to the general public: Research reports on ‘in-field’ implementation and analysis

The research project titled Metatheoretical investigation of the criteria of adequacy of scientific communication to the general public aims to answer the question of whether scientific communication to the general public is possible while redefining the concept of scientific literacy on epistemological grounds and shaping an interdisciplinary theoretical framework within which the research will provide the criteria of adequacy of this specific communication and the basic theoretical norms that should optimize this complex process. Although it sounds merely theoretical, the project has several applicative and empirical dimensions. After acquiring the optimization model of a scientific text within the theoretic-formal stage, the project can be developed further toward the application and implementation of practical results into the activity of the entities providing non-classical forms of science education, namely science periodicals and 'e-learning' platforms, as well as web-based science/research communicators and explainers from all niches. Prior to reaching these main goals (or in parallel), we found useful to explore and collect feedback from the activity related to the simplest form of science communication, namely science journalism aiming to communicate relevant research results published in academic journals. It is the social dimension of science communication that makes the empirical qualitative research necessary in this project, expected to serve effectively the theoretical research, which is more elaborated around its epistemic dimension. By various types of campaigns, we encouraged various non-academic sites to adopt a specific form of science journalism for making research results available for the general audience. We collaborated with experts, writers, and site managers in several niches with the ability to write and post on their sites (or sites for which they write) friendly-user summaries of journal articles, with topics of interest for their readership. Such summaries serve as sources for a better reading and understanding of the academic topics being cited, as well as science/research news. According to the project’s methodology, we provided the writers with basic guidelines for conceiving their summaries, optimized for this particular form of science communication and its goals. One of the requirements for a summary to be considered and assessed in our analysis was not to be written with the help of the AI. Submitting to the social dimension of science communication, the qualitative analysis of this form of science journalism should pertain to the text itself, the communicator’s work, and the impact on readers. This is why the feedback collected from the site managers in what concerns their particular writing experience in adopting this form of science journalism in their niche, as well as the feedback from their readers will be analyzed and the conclusions will be factored in the overall research.