Science Communication Education Resources
BOOKS
Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide
Editors: Susan Rowland & Louise Kuchel
This highly-readable book addresses how to teach effective communication in science. The first part of the book provides accessible context and theory about communicating science well, and is written by experts. The second part focuses on the practice of teaching communication in science, with ‘nuts and bolts’ lesson plans direct from the pens of practitioners. The book includes over 50 practice chapters, each focusing on one or more short teaching activities to target a specific aspect of communication, such as writing, speaking and listening. Implementing the activities is made easy with class run sheets, tips and tricks for instructors, signposts to related exercises and theory chapters, and further resources.
Strategic Science Communication: A Guide to Setting the Right Objectives for More Effective Public Engagement
by John C. Besley & Anthony Dudo
In this guidebook, John C. Besley and Anthony Dudo encapsulate their practical expertise in 11 evidence-based principles of strategic science communication. Among other things, science communicators, they argue, should strive to seem competent, warm, honest, and willing to listen. Their work should also convey a desire to make the world a better place. Highlighting time-tested methods for building rapport with an audience through several modes of communication, Besley and Dudo explain how to achieve each strategic objective. All scientific communication is goal-oriented, and Besley and Dudo discuss the importance of recognizing the right goals, then employing strategic and tactical communication in order to achieve them. Finally, they offer specific suggestions for how practitioners can evaluate the effectiveness of their communications (and in fact, build evaluation into their plans from the beginning). Featured in a SCERN Talk
Science Communication for Scientists: Linking Strategy with Creativity, Practice, and Respect
by Laura Lindenfeld, John C. Besley, Xia Zheng, Anthony Dudo, & Todd P. Newman
Grounded in strategic thinking and social science research, this textbook empowers students to confidently navigate skillful and effective science communication. Developed by leading science, health, and risk communication scholars, the book provides a clear, research-informed approach to communicating with audiences across the scientific community and broader society. Readers explore how to put theory into practice through classroom-tested activities, international real-world examples, and thoughtful practice-oriented assignments. These tools help students to create audience-centered communication strategies, build habits of ethical and intentional engagement, and engage with a wide range of audiences, ultimately developing greater alignment between science and society. It prepares students to be more effective communicators and works to define science communication education by integrating practice with evidence and reflection. Featured in a SCERN Talk
The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication
by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dan M. Kahan, & Dietram A. Scheufele
The cross-disciplinary Oxford Handbook on the Science of Science Communication contains 47 essays by 57 leading scholars organized into six sections: The first section establishes the need for a science of science communication, provides an overview of the area, examines sources of science knowledge and the ways in which changing media structures affect it, reveals what the public thinks about science, and situates current scientific controversies in their historical contexts. The book’s second part examines challenges to science including difficulties in peer review, rising numbers of retractions, publication and statistical biases, and hype. Successes and failures in communicating about four controversies are the subject of Part III: “mad cow,” nanotechnology, biotechnology, and the HPV and HBV vaccines. The fourth section focuses on the ways in which elite intermediaries communicate science. These include the national academies, scholarly presses, government organizations, museums, foundations, and social networks. It examines as well scientific deliberation among citizens and science-based policymaking. In Part V, the handbook treats science media interactions, knowledge-based journalism, polarized media environments, popular images of science, and the portrayal of science in entertainment, narratives, and comedy. The final section identifies the ways in which human biases that can affect communicated science can be overcome. Biases include resistant misinformation, inadequate frames, biases in moral reasoning, confirmation and selective exposure biases, innumeracy, recency effects, fear of the unnatural, normalization, false causal attribution, and public difficulty in processing uncertainty. Each section of the book includes a thematic synthesis.
Queering Science Communication (Contemporary Issues in Science Communication, Book #1)
by Lindy A. Orthia & Tara Roberson
Written by leading experts, this collection examines representations of queerness in popular science and media, asks what it means for the field to ‘queer’ science communication theories and research agendas and offers practical examples and case studies for fostering radical inclusivity and equity in the science communication field.
Race and Sociocultural Inclusion in Science Communication (Contemporary Issues in Science Communication, Book #2)
by Elizabeth Rasekoala
This radical volume disrupts circular debates around diversity, equity and inclusion in science communication to address the gaps in the field. Bringing to the fore marginalized voices of so-called 'racialized minorities', and those from Global South regions, it interrogates the global footprint of the science communication enterprise.
Coming Soon: Science Communication as Sustainability (Contemporary Issues in Science Communication, Book #3)
by Sabrina Vitting-Seerup, Martin Grünfeld, & Marianne Achiam
Urgent crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss and global pandemics demand new ways of communicating knowledge. This book reimagines science communication, not just as a way to communicate about sustainability, but as a sustainable practice. Challenging traditional communication models rooted in neutrality and control, it explores a transformative approach that is participatory, performative, and ethically engaged. Through arts-based methods, the chapters cultivate a mindset focused on deep relationality and radical imagination. Blending critique and imagination, this is an invitation to scientists, communicators, and artists seeking to collaborate across disciplines to reshape science communication and transform our collective futures.
Science Blogging
by Christie Wilcox, Bethany Brookshire, & Jason G. Goldman
Here is the essential how-to guide for communicating scientific research and discoveries online, ideal for journalists, researchers, and public information officers looking to reach a wide lay audience. Drawing on the cumulative experience of twenty-seven of the greatest minds in scientific communication, this invaluable handbook targets the specific questions and concerns of the scientific community, offering help in a wide range of digital areas, including blogging, creating podcasts, tweeting, and more. With step-by-step guidance and one-stop expertise, this is the book every scientist, science writer, and practitioner needs to approach the Wild West of the Web with knowledge and confidence.
RESEARCH
Key Science Communication Research Articles
In the Science Communication Education Research Network (SCERN), we aim to teach our undergraduate students in evidence-based science communication skills and practice. As such, we need to keep up with the evidence in science communication research that informs effective science communication practice! This PDF contains some science communication research syntheses and articles that can be useful in science communication research, practice, and training.