In ‘Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity.’ Sander van der Linden expertly lays out strategies for counteracting misinformation, but also highlights how difficult creating a better information environment…
Category: research communication
Scientific conferences: Why meeting face-to-face still matters
The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated a trend in academic meetings and conferences to move from real world to digital environments. Whilst this has potential gains in accessibility and inclusivity, drawing on a study of physicists, Harry Collins an…
Paying to play – Professional academic communication should be factored into research funding
Reflecting on the ongoing professionalisation of academic communication and increased opportunities for researchers to engage, Andy Tattersall argues researchers and research funders should be mindful of the communication requirements of their projects…
Is Development an Art or a Science?
Reflecting on nearly twenty years of transdisciplinary practice and research and the recent publication of their new book, New Mediums, Better Messages? How Innovations in Translation, Engagement, and Advocacy are Changing International Development, Da…
2022 in review: Communicating Your Research
Research communication is a moveable feast and as varied as the media and communication channels used to reach an intended audience. This annual review pulls out eleven posts focusing on different aspects of research communication that have been featur…
When the safety of being right makes change hard – Introducing the Epistemic Bunker
It would be difficult to develop new ideas if everyone you associated with was hostile to them. The varying degrees of safety provided by the exclusion of people and ideas opposed to certain forms of knowledge is thus an often unacknowledged part of kn…
Telling the truth, uniting behind the science – Climate coalitions and science’s place in society
In recent years, a new wave of climate activist groups, such as Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future and the Sunrise Movement have reshaped public debates on climate action. In so doing they refer to scientific evidence. But, how exactly do they un…
The focus on misinformation leads to a profound misunderstanding of why people believe and act on bad information
Misinformation has been a prominent paradigm in the explanation of social, political, and more recently epidemiological phenomena since the middle of the last decade. However, Daniel Williams argues that a focus on misinformation is limiting when used …
Tell me what you read (or watch) and I will tell you what you research: The two-way street between science and literature
Literature and in particular science fiction is often seen as being prefigurative to the development of science and technology. Whilst this can on occasion be the case, drawing on a study of AI researchers and their reading and viewing material, Sarah …
UK in a Changing Europe: injecting social science into a polarised political debate
Reflecting on seven years of UK in a Changing Europe, Anand Menon and Jill Rutter discuss how the project has brought social science insights into the mainstream of a polarised public debate. Highlighting how this mode of engagement falls outside of or…