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• Date of publication Jun 21, 2017 Category: Commentary

  Big data and digital methods in science communication research: opportunities, challenges and limits

  by Nico Pitrelli

  Computational social science represents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of reality based on advanced computer tools. From economics to political science, from journalism to sociology, digital approaches and techniques for the analysis and management of large quantities of data have now been adopted in several disciplines. The papers in this JCOM commentary focus on the use of such approaches and techniques in the research on science communication. As the papers point out, the most significant advantages of a computational approach in this sector include the chance to open up a range of new research opportunities: from the study of technical and scientific controversies to citizen science, from the definition of new norms and practices for science journalism to open science issues. On the other hand, difficulties are shared with other areas of application. The main risk is that the large quantity of data available can overwhelm the importance of theory. Instead, as the papers in this commentary demonstrate, big data should push scientists to pursue a deeper epistemological and methodological reflection also in the research on science communication.

  The shift from public science communication to public relations. The Vaxxed case

  by Davide Bennato

  Old media and new opportunities for a computational social science on PCST

  by Federico Neresini

  Computer-aided text analysis: an open-aired laboratory for social sciences

  by Yuri Castelfranchi

  Making citizen science newsworthy in the era of big data

  by Stuart Allan and Joanna Redden

  The landscape of online visual communication of science

  by Cristina Rigutto

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication Dec 15, 2015 Category: Commentary

  Open Science training and education: challenges and difficulties on the researchers' side and in public engagement

  by Nico Pitrelli , Stefania Arabito

  Open Science may become the next scientific revolution, but still lingers in a pre-paradigmatic phase, characterised by the lack of established definitions and domains. Certainly, Open Science requires a new vision of the way to produce and share scientific knowledge, as well as new skills. Therefore, education plays a crucial role in supporting this cultural change along the path of science. This is the basic principle inspiring the collection of essays published in this issue of JCOM, which deals with many subjects ranging from open access to the public engagement in scientific research, from open data to the social function of preprint servers for the physicians' community. These are issues that go along with the targets of the FOSTER project (Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research) funded by the European Union, which has provided interesting food for thought in order to write this commentary.

  Open science

  by Ann Grand

  The time has come for managing and sharing research data in universities

  by Ignasi Labastida

  Open Access: what's in it for me as an early career researcher?

  by Nancy Pontika

  Preprints and peer review: a lesson from physics

  by Alessandro Delfanti

  Volume 14 • Issue 04 • 2015

• Date of publication Jun 24, 2013 Category: Editorial

  New directions for JCOM

  by Luisa Massarani , Matteo Merzagora , Nico Pitrelli , Brian Trench , Bora Zivkovic

  A new editorial board is guiding JCOM through a period of change and here opens out the discussion on what JCOM has become and what it could or should become in the future. The journal's readers are invited to make their contributions.

  Volume 12 • Issue 02 • 2013

• Date of publication Mar 20, 2013 Category: Editorial

  JCOM — Five Years into the Future

  by Nico Pitrelli

  In the next few months, JCOM will undergo relevant changes. A new owner will take charge of its editorial management and define new development strategies. This important transition is a good opportunity to take stock of the past few years and to devise a new type of science communication research journal.

  Volume 12 • Issue 01 • 2013

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Science journalism and digital storytelling

  by Nico Pitrelli

  Among the most interesting aspects of the changes in the media ecosystem a leading role is played by the impact of digital and networking technologies on the ways news reports are built. In this Jcom commentary, the issues of the relationship between digital storytelling and professional news production will focus on science journalism. The commentary will deal with theoretical reflections and practical examples of innovative experiences in which different narration methods were exploited for scientific information.

  Science journalism and fact checking

  by Maximilian Schäfer

  The post-journalist’s toolbox - Trends in digital storytelling

  by Nicola Bruno

  Telling science stories in an evolving digital media ecosystem: from communication to conversation and confrontation

  by Richard Holliman

  Volume 10 • Issue 04 • 2011

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2010 Category: Editorial

  Science journalism to face a demand for renewal

  by Nico Pitrelli

  A workshop on science journalism organised at SISSA of Trieste, Italy a few weeks ago outlined scenarios that should serve as a source for debate among professionals and scholars to grasp how information activities regarding science, medicine and technology will evolve in the next few years. It is a time of great uncertainty, yet a common path to venture through can be made out: the new science journalism should meditate on a different concept of science, an in-depth conceptualisation of different audiences, alternative narrations and its role in the democratisation of knowledge within a knowledge-based society.

  Volume 9 • Issue 04 • 2010

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2010 Category: Commentary

  Road maps for the 21st-century research in Science Communication

  by Nico Pitrelli

  This is an introduction to the essays from the Jcom commentary devoted to the statute and the future of research in science communication. The authors have a long experience in international research in this domain. In the past few years, they have all been committed to the production of collective works which are now the most important references for science communication research programmes in the next few years. What topics should science communication research focus on and why? What is its general purpose? What is its real degree of autonomy from other similar fields of study? In other words, is science communication its 'own' field? These are some of the questions addressed by the in-depth discussion in this Jcom issue, with the awareness that science communication is a young, brittle research field, looking for a shared map, but also one of the most stimulating places of the contemporary academic panorama.

  Notes from some spaces in-between

  by Alice R. Bell

  Science communication, an emerging discipline

  by Brian Trench and Massimiano Bucchi

  Is science communication its own field?

  by Toss Gascoigne, Donghong Cheng, Michel Claessens, Jenni Metcalfe, Bernard Schiele and Shunke Shi

  From analogue to digital scholarship: implications for science communication researchers

  by Richard Holliman

  Coming of age in the academy? The status of our emerging field

  by Susanna Hornig Priest

  Volume 9 • Issue 03 • 2010

• Date of publication Oct 30, 2009 Category: Commentary

  Socialization of scientific and technological research: further comments

  by Yuri Castelfranchi , Nico Pitrelli

  Research systems are increasingly required to be more practically oriented and to address issues which appear more promising in economic and social results, with special reference to trans-disciplinary research fields, such as nanotechnology or ICTs; policy makers show a sharp tendency to establish research priorities and to drive research systems; universities and research institutions are asked to be more transparent and open to dialogue with social actors on contents, impacts, ethical implications and practical applications of scientific and technological research. These transformations affecting both the ways in which science and technology are produced and their relationships with society pose new challenges to European research. All the aspects of research activities are concerned, including the life of the research groups, the approaches to scientific evaluation, the development of European research policies and the interaction between researchers with their social environment. Continuing a reflection started in the last issue of JCOM, Luisa Prista, Evanthia Kalpazidou-Schmidt, Brigida Blasi, Sandra Romagnosi and Miguel Martínez López offered their contribution in identifying some of the key implications and risks which these changes are bringing about, mainly in the perspective of the construction of the European Research Area.

  Embedding science in society: a European perspective

  by Luisa Prista

  The role of evaluation in socialising S&T in the ERA

  by Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt

  Reflection on the collectivization of science through research groups

  by Brigida Blasi and Sandra Romagnosi

  Scientific mediation: on social processes, contexts and networks in which scientists are embedded

  by Miguel Martínez López

  Volume 8 • Issue 04 • 2009

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2009 Category: Editorial

  Filling the gap between theory and practice

  by Nico Pitrelli

  Jcom’s adventure was launched nearly eight years ago, when a group of lecturers and former students of the Master’s degree in Science Communication at SISSA of Trieste, decided to have training joined by the commitment to research on science communication issues.

  Volume 8 • Issue 03 • 2009

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2009 Category: Commentary

  The socialisation of scientific and technological research

  by Yuri Castelfranchi , Nico Pitrelli

  In the last decades, production of science and technology as well as science-society relationships started changing rapidly. Research is asked to be more effective, fast, accountable, trans-disciplinary, result-oriented, policy-driven and able to generate benefits for people and firms in the short and middle run. While a strong intensification of science-society relationships is occurring, an increasing number of actors and stakeholders are involved in research production. At the same time, pervasiveness of technology is rendering users an active part in technological development; economic and social interests on science and technology are growing on a global scale; new democratic and ethical issues emerge. Despite the European institutions’ efforts, all those trends and phenomena are occurring in an extremely fragmented way. In this scenario, a fairly balanced and consistent co-evolution between science and society can no longer be taken for granted. This is just the starting point of the following comment section that, through the  Luciano d’Andrea, Sally Wyatt, Erik Aarden, Jos Lejten and Peter Sekloča’s writings, aims to analyse the different aspects and questions around the socialisation of science and technology’s matter.

  A different interpretation of science-society relations: the socialization of scientific and technological research

  by Luciano d'Andrea

  Science and technology: socialising what for whom?

  by Sally Wyatt

  Technoscience, technological cultures and socialisation

  by Erik Aarden

  Social technologies and socialization of research

  by Jos Leijten

  Public scientific communication: reflections on the public and its participation forms

  by Peter Sekloča and Ernest Ženko

  Volume 8 • Issue 03 • 2009