Science Has a Communication Problem

This article is about Science communication problems

Currently, on reading most science articles and science journal articles these days. You realize science has a communication problem. This post will illustrate the issues with science communication.

This is the opening of an article on about science communication by the way! www.gavi.org/vaccineswork

“Currently, Scientists are brilliant communicators. We are trained to work with collaborations large and small, present our work in journal articles and conferences with clarity and purpose, and generally enjoy chatting with each other. Communication is a fundamental part of scientific life. Yet when scientists try to engage the public, they face barriers to getting their message across and can often find their messages manipulated.

As a scientist heavily engaged in science communication, I find my colleagues falling into the same traps, over and over again — assuming they even bother in the first place. Science is failing at communicating its own process and values effectively to the public. And attempts to disseminate vital information risk getting distorted by media interests, co-opted for political gain, or outright ignored. As a result, I believe that the public is slowly losing trust in science because they don’t view scientists as trustworthy people.”

Here is it scores:

Passive voice: 25% of the sentences contain passive voice, which is more than the recommended maximum of 10%. Try to use their active counterparts.

Sentence length: 50% of the sentences contain more than 20 words, which is more than the recommended maximum of 25%. Try to shorten the sentences.

Now from this Journal article in nature.com

Science Has a Communication Problem

“Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection of vaccinated individuals is increasingly common but rarely results in severe disease, likely due to the enhanced potency and accelerated kinetics of memory immune responses. However, there have been few opportunities to rigorously study early recall responses during human viral infection. To better understand human immune memory and identify potential mediators of lasting vaccine efficacy, we used high-dimensional flow cytometry and SARS-CoV-2 antigen probes to examine immune responses in longitudinal samples from vaccinated individuals infected during the Omicron wave. These studies revealed heightened spike-specific responses during infection of vaccinated compared to unvaccinated individuals. Spike-specific cluster of differentiation (CD)4 T cells and plasmablasts expanded and CD8 T cells were robustly activated during the first week. In contrast, memory B cell activation, neutralizing antibody production and primary responses to nonspike antigens occurred during the second week. Collectively, these data demonstrate the functionality of vaccine-primed immune memory and highlight memory T cells as rapid responders during SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

This is the score of the Abstract:

Sentence length: 57.1% of the sentences contain more than 20 words, which is more than the recommended maximum of 25%. Try to shorten the sentences.

Passive voice: 14.3% of the sentences contain passive voice, which is more than the recommended maximum of 10%. Try to use their active counterparts.

Paragraph length: 1 of the paragraphs contains more than the recommended maximum of 150 words. Shorten your paragraphs!

We reviewed this journal article here.

Do You See the Problem?

Scientists are NOT brilliant communicators! I got three degrees in science. I suffered thru 3 English courses in the universities I went to. Now because in am writing and reviewing science articles, I am learning how to write and communicate better. What I am finding is most articles and journal articles are unreadable.