Why don’t more people believe in climate change? Why don’t policymakers act more quickly and decisively on climate change legislation? What is science doing wrong (if anything) when it comes to communicating the nature and urgency of this issue?

Next month, the National Science Communication Institute is hosting a conference in Seattle that will explore one of the facets of the science communication issue. The subject of this conference is the current and future role and impact of journals on science. For centuries now, scientists have used journals as the primary means of communicating science information, and this information has moved from research settings to the public through various filters like academic institutions and the media. More and more, science communication advocates have been focusing on ways to cut out the middleman and better prepare scientists to take their information directly to the public. Why? Is this the best and only solution? And does it really address the more fundamental questions about the cultural and institutional inadequacies in science communication?

One can no doubt argue that there are a thousand subjects with have some sort of bearing on climate policy in America, from research to education to lobbying and everything in between. Our take on this is yes---these are all important and relevant and a necessary part of the discussion. One of the first steps, however, not just for climate policy but for many other areas of science, is to think anew about how we can remove the information roadblocks and change the information incentives in science, be it through open access, open data, collaboration networks, and so on.

What are the impacts of the current communication dynamic in science vis-à-vis journals? What changes are occurring? What are the limits to rapid change. We hope you can join us in Seattle on November 15^th to hear more and discuss an approach to creating better communication solutions for science going forward.

Details of the event here. The event registration website is nsci.eventbrite.com.

Thank you and best regards,

Glenn Hampson
Executive Director
National Science Communication Institute (nSCI)

2320 N 137th Street | Seattle, WA 98133

(206) 417-3607 | [email protected] | nationalscience.org