Publications

Jul 13, 2026 Article

Shared gatekeeping: comparing relevance criteria for selecting science information

Science communication experiences major transitions: alongside science journalists, scientists, their institutions, and public relations departments increasingly select and communicate science information to publics, thereby stepping into gatekeeping roles. To better understand this “shared gatekeeping” and how different science communicators select topics, this article investigates relevance criteria that guide selection and communication decisions of science information. Drawing on 57 interviews with German-speaking science journalists, science public relations practitioners, and scientists, the study identifies and compares relevance criteria for each group based on the hierarchy of influences model. Findings reveal a wide range of relevance criteria as well as similarities and differences at individual, communication routines, organizational, and social institutional levels. Although all groups seem to be guided by similar, partly journalistic, relevance criteria (e.g., overlapping goals, topic characteristics), they operate within distinct professional contexts and thus weigh these criteria differently.

Volume 25Issue 52026Transitions in Science Communication: Continuity and Change (PCST 2025)

Jul 13, 2026 Article

Transforming narratives: gender equity struggles in Latin American and Caribbean science museums

by Bianca Hipólito de Oliveira BHO , Alessandra Bizerra , Miss Mirelly de Oliveira Soares

Science museums are undergoing a transition, expanding their role in science communication to engage with equity and inclusion actively. Although women and gender-diverse individuals constitute a significant proportion of museum audiences, they remain underrepresented in exhibitions and leadership roles. This study examines how science museums can address gender equity. Based on a survey of science museum professionals across Latin America and the Caribbean, we identified respondents reporting gender-focused transformative actions. We conducted a thematic analysis of gender-focused transformative actions. Five key elements were developed: female participation, identity negotiation, disruption of normative gender narratives, historical recovery, and activism. The initiatives demonstrate significant transformative potential but are constrained by persistent challenges. By examining these evolving practices in contexts shaped by both structural inequalities and historical struggles for rights, this study contributes to an understanding of how science museums can act as spaces for social transformation.

Volume 25Issue 52026Transitions in Science Communication: Continuity and Change (PCST 2025)

Jul 13, 2026 Practice Insight

Including lived experience voices in science communication to combat mental illness stigma: insights from India

by Kadambari Patil , Anushka Banerjee , Imtiaz Zafar , Ipsa Jain , Meghna Prakash , Dr Pavithra Jayasankar , Ms Varsha Kini , Vasundhra Teotia , Ashitha S Niranjana Murthy , Dr Bhagyalakshmi Mallapura Shankarappa , Swarna Buddha Nayok , Jayant Mahadevan , Suhas Ganesh , Biju Viswanath , Reeteka Sud

Outreach on mental illness presents a unique challenge for science communication, in that it requires approaches to actively address associated stigma. A significant barrier to treatment and recovery, stigma shapes the lives of those diagnosed with mental illnesses alongside their clinical symptoms. Evidence suggests that active involvement of person(s) with lived experience (PwLE) may be a promising strategy to combat stigma. However, such interventions remain under-documented in low- and middle-income countries like India. To address this gap, we designed a series of innovative events, co-produced with PwLE. We engaged approximately 260 participants and displayed 191 creative artefacts. This article presents and reflects on our science communication practices to address mental illness stigma by integrating arts-based participation with principles from contact theory.

Volume 25Issue 52026Transitions in Science Communication: Continuity and Change (PCST 2025)

Jul 13, 2026 Practice Insight

Agents of (comedic) change: co-creation through improv to develop environmental science agency

by Claire A. Murray Dr , Ms Paola Serrano Bravo , Gesche Kindermann Dr , Jessamyn A. Fairfield

The climate crisis is no longer a crisis of knowledge, but a crisis of agency. Individuals wishing to act must overcome climate anxiety, feelings of powerlessness, and doubt associated with the complexity of the scientific realities of climate change. Rural communities offer much to learn about sustainable living and environmental solutions, but are rarely the site of many science communication initiatives due to inequities in funding, transit, and access to decision-makers. This practice insight explores how the act of performing in `We Built This City on Rock and Coal', an improvised theatre show about climate change in rural and remote communities in Ireland, supported performers to develop agency and transition towards taking pro-environmental actions in their own lives. Accessing environmental science expertise alongside space for emotional responses (both heavy and light-hearted) in specific contexts anchored by local knowledge helped practitioners create a platform for change and climate action.

Volume 25Issue 52026Transitions in Science Communication: Continuity and Change (PCST 2025)

Jul 08, 2026 Commentary

EDITORIAL: Scholars Under Attack — Navigating the dark side of public engagement and science communication in a politicised (online) environment

by Birte Fähnrich , Carla Almeida , Clemens Dietrich Blümel , Mr Daniel Edler , Benedikt Fecher , Mr Niels G. Mede , Nataliia Sokolovska

Hostility towards science has emerged as a significant challenge in contemporary science communication, particularly in increasingly politicised and digitally mediated public environments. Scholars across diverse disciplines are confronted with harassment, delegitimisation, political interference, disinformation, and personal attacks, especially when engaging in public communication. This editorial introduces the JCOM commentary set “Scholars Under Attack” and situates hostility towards science within broader transformations of media ecosystems, political polarisation, and contested epistemic authority. The article argues that current debates remain conceptually fragmented and empirically underdeveloped, with limited comparative and longitudinal evidence regarding the scope, forms, and consequences of hostility directed at researchers. To address these gaps, the editorial proposes a working definition of hostility towards science as practices, discourses, and actions that undermine the authority, credibility, or integrity of scientific actors, knowledge, and institutions in politicised public arenas. The commentary set brings together interdisciplinary and international perspectives from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Australia, highlighting how experiences of hostility vary across political systems, institutional contexts, disciplines, and social identities. The contributions examine online harassment, gendered hostility, misinformation, academic freedom, institutional shortcomings, and the paradoxical dynamics of visibility in digital communication. Collectively, they emphasise the need for more systematic empirical research, stronger institutional support structures, and nuanced conceptual approaches that distinguish hostility from legitimate critique while recognising the democratic importance of public science communication.

Walking the line: balancing benefits of public engagement against the risks of harassment and attack

by Jana Laura Egelhofer, Mr Niels G. Mede, Fabien Medvecky, Dr Thomas James Carruthers, Alice Fleerackers, Miguel Garcia-Guerrero and Mr Bernard Okebe

The erosion of academic freedom in Venezuela: international human rights law, authoritarian practice, and implications for knowledge communication

by Mr Ricardo Villalobos Fontalvo and Dr David Gomez Gamboa

The price of speaking out: European landscape of online hate and harassment

by Atte Oksanen

Patterns of attacks against scholars in Germany: controversial topics as contexts and accelerators of science hostility

by Clemens Dietrich Blümel and Ennio Noél Brandt

Beyond incivility: supporting scientists' efforts to correct misinformation online

by Ashley A. Anderson, Nicole Kelp and Sera Choi

From visibility to vulnerability: how women scientists face gendered hostility in science communication

by Dr Maider Eizmendi Iraola and Mr Simón Peña-Fernandez

The engagement paradox: how negative feedback shapes visibility-oriented science communication on TikTok

by Tinca Lukan and Benedikt Fecher

Scientists under fire: lessons from the Omicron case

by Mrs Kim Darley Waddilove, Nothando Ngwenya and Marina Joubert

Beyond expectation: institutional and structural shortfalls in supporting scholars engaged in science communication

by Josephine B. Schmitt and Sabine Reich

Volume 25Issue 42026

Jul 06, 2026 Article

Mass media use and public attitudes toward quantum science

by Ming Wang

This study examines how information sources are indirectly related to support for quantum science. Results from a national survey of quantum science aware publics in the United States (n = 919) showed that TV news use was negatively associated with interest and knowledge and positively associated with benefit and risk perceptions. By contrast, print/online media use and social media use were positively associated with interest and knowledge. Social media use was also positively associated with risk perception. Notably, benefit perception had the strongest association with support for quantum science. These findings suggest complex relationships between media use and attitudes toward quantum science.

Volume 25Issue 42026

Jul 01, 2026 Book Review

Bringing the invisible to light: a review of “Invisible Rainbows”

by Andrea Bandelli

Invisible Rainbows is a popular astronomy book by astrophysicist and science journalist Alfredo Carpineti, organised around the electromagnetic spectrum and built around conversations with LGBTQIA+ astronomers from around the world. It is, at the same time, a celebration of modern astronomy and a clear argument about the relationship between science and the society that produces it. The book is rigorous and warm in equal measure, never letting one undermine the other, and offers science communicators a strong example of how popular science writing can hold technical depth and political clarity on the same page.

Volume 25Issue 42026

Jun 29, 2026 Letter

A response to: “Does science communication have its goals wrong? From persuading science skeptics to promoting scientific empowerment” — A defense of certain types of persuasion

by John C Besley , Sara K. Yeo , Anthony Dudo , Shupei Yuan

This response to the commentary “Does science communication have its goals wrong? From persuading science skeptics to promoting scientific empowerment” argues that the field would benefit from more attention to the persuasion literature, not less. A primary element of this argument is that a nuanced understanding of persuasion research can provide opportunities to achieve a wide range of goals — including empowering others — in ethical, evidence-based ways.

Publisher's note: this letter refers to Does science communication have its goals wrong? From persuading science skeptics to promoting scientific empowerment

Volume 25Issue 42026

Jun 24, 2026 Practice Insight

International Astronomical Union General Assembly 2024: a case study on social media outreach and open access in large-scale scientific conferences

by Andrea Girolamodibari , Dr Vanessa Moss

This report presents an analysis of the communication efforts of the XXXII International Astronomical Union General Assembly, the first held on the African continent. For the first time in its history, the conference provided a fully streamed, open access experience on YouTube, complemented by a robust, multi-platform social media outreach campaign. Through metrics analysis and survey results, our study evaluates the effectiveness of diverse digital initiatives in enhancing engagement on different social media platforms to democratise scientific discourse. These findings offer critical insights for future hybrid and virtual conferences, providing social media metrics, best practices analysis and evaluation for social media scientific global communication of large-scale scientific gatherings.

Volume 25Issue 42026

Jun 22, 2026 Practice Insight

Communicating EU-funded projects: a comparison of communication activities in research projects funded under Horizon 2020 and led by Portuguese and Polish institutions

by Dr Luis Arboledas-Lérida

This paper analyses the communication activities conducted within the framework of research projects funded under Horizon 2020, with more than €1M in funding, and led by Portuguese or Polish institutions. A total of 221 initiatives (68 Poland-led and 153 Portugal-led) are examined. The primary finding is that the majority of projects do not engage in communication activities. Web presence is observed in 41.1% of Poland-led projects and 41.8% of Portugal-led projects. In turn, social media presence is more common among Portugal-led (44.4%) than among Poland-led (29%) initiatives. Outreach activities are not very prominent, with a frequency of 28.1% and 23.5%, respectively. These figures improve slightly to moderately when controlling for projects' end date. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the influence of funding on communication activities. The relationship is positive across the board and reveals a potential effect, although it is statistically significant only for Portugal-led projects. These findings invite us to reconsider `legal obligation' to communicate the project and its outcomes that has become the norm in most grant funding, and provide a more nuanced understanding of the differences between `developed' and `developing' science communication landscapes.

Volume 25Issue 42026

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