Science of Science Communication Scientific Interest Group

NEW! “Balancing creativity and effectiveness in social media,” by Jennifer Montooth, Social Media Specialist at NHGRI, Thursday December 1 at 1:30pm ET.

For our December 2022 ScioSciComm SIG meeting, Jennifer Montooth will share her experience curating and evaluating the popular @genome_gov twitter feed. How have she and the Office of Communications used memes and twitter chats as part of their content, and grown NHGRI’s twitter feed to nearly 75K followers in a few years? And how do they judge effectiveness of their efforts to reach the genomics community and beyond? Join us and bring your questions about the science of this form of science communication! The Zoom link is https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1618456703?pwd=ZWlrblhvSnVrZFVweW5GVkpYQ05VZz….

Effectively communicating research results to a broad range of audiences is integral to the scientific process. The ability to tell rigorous and compelling stories of science can elevate a researcher’s profile, facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations, and increase the impact of their scholarly publications within the scientific community. Perhaps more importantly, strong communication can also enhance public engagement with science, allowing researchers to build bridges of trust with non-technical audiences and instill a sense of curiosity and wonder among inquiring minds. While artistry is no doubt critical to communications, there exists an underlying body of literature that draws from fields including psychology, sociology, and political science that provide a theoretical foundation for scientific communications.

The NIH Science of Science Communication Interest Group (ScioSciComm-SIG) plans to focus specifically on the scientific design and evaluation of science communication, with seminars/journal clubs highlighting both measures of effectiveness and methods to increase general success or target efforts to respond to specific goals.

The interest group is chaired by Chris Gunter (NHGRI) and Maryam Zaringhalam (NLM). Membership in the ScioSciComm-SIG will be open to all interested individuals within the NIH, who can join the listserv via https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=SCIOSCICOMM. A combination of face-to-face meetings and remote webinars will be held monthly (days and times to be determined). For more information and instructions on joining the newsletter, contact Drs. Zaringhalam or Gunter.

Chair

Scientific Focus Areas

This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 9, 2022