Effective and clear science communication is essential for human, animal and environmental health.
Science is getting harder to read, even for scientists. The overuse of acronyms, abbreviations, jargon, and long sentences make academic writing impenetrable for the wider public and non-specialists in general, including researchers from other fields. But science is not completed until it is communicated.
To reach other researchers, policymakers, health professionals, and the media, scientific achievements must find their way out of the laboratory in a clear and informative manner. Accessible, accurate and transparent messages are the best way to bring scientific achievements to society, turning laboratory experiments into valuable and practical tools.
Alienating the community from the meaning of scientific achievements may lead to the spread of dangerous misinformation. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how damaging this can be to public health.
Lower readability means less accessibility
Plavén-Sigray and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, investigated science readability over time by looking into 709,577 abstracts published in123 scientific journals between 1881 and 2015. “More than a fifth of scientific abstracts now have a readability considered beyond college graduate-level”, concluded the authors.
But publishing research should not be about writing to your peers. Instead, science achievements must reach out to those who need it and pay for it.
“Lower readability implies less accessibility, particularly for non-specialists, such as journalists, policymakers and the wider public,” concluded the authors.
What is the point of publishing science that cannot even reach a well-informed audience?
The role of science communication
Science communication educates, informs, influences opinions and drives behaviour change. When conveyed right, it generates social acceptance and public trust.
If what we are reading makes no sense to us, we do not stick to it. Instead, we tend to accept what resonates as the truth and quit on what seems too complicated to be helpful.
The battle between public confidence and vaccination, for example, (gaining more popularity with the COVID-19 pandemic) shows the vast distance between society and the scientific community.
Vaccination decline is becoming a public health concern. In a recent essay published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, Harrison and Wu invite scientists to ask questions about their influence on vaccination public mistrust. They argue that, beyond the success – or failure – of COVID19 vaccination, it is the public confidence in vaccines overall that indicates a good public health system.
The role of science communicators becomes even more evident during this pandemic: they are the bridge between scientists and society; between complex language and accessible messages.
Society needs science communicators
Misinformation spreads quickly and can lead to dangerous consequences. Bringing science closer to policymakers, journalists, and the media, helps people make well-informed decisions and protects them from the harmful outcomes of fake science.
But to increase science outreach, scientists must learn how to communicate effectively and clearly.
On the other hand, to ensure that the message is not only engaging but accurate, science communicators must understand the scientific language.
Science communicators from all backgrounds must work together to deliver safe medical and health advice for the benefit of all. Clear and accurate science communication creates healthier societies and a healthier planet.
We are all in this together.
