Introduction to scientific communication

Hi, I'm Dr. Evie Kendal, Senior Lecturer of Health Promotion at Swinburne University of Technology, here to introduce the topic of Scientific Communication.

Our first question is, where can you find science being communicated? One of our key areas is peer-reviewed journal articles. Now, this may not be a term you're familiar with, but it's bandied around a lot in academia and in scientific laboratories. Essentially, peer-reviewed journal articles are articles that are written by scientists or teams of scientists, and then submitted to academic journals. When they arrive, an editor does the first read. If they think that the article is appropriate for their journal's subscribers—the audience, if they think the science is good—the methods are clear, they might then send the article to experts to review. These are the peers that we're talking about. Usually, this is two or three experts in a relevant field who will review the article. They'll check the methodology, make sure everything was done properly. They'll check the writing to make sure everything is clear. And they'll check that ethics were adhered to. That means the correct approvals were granted by an ethics committee for any experiments that may have involved, say, humans or animals. If they're happy, they might write a review that suggests the editor accepts the paper for publication, or what is more likely, they'll have revisions that they are requesting—improvements, things they think the authors should consider. The editor then takes these reports and makes a decision. That might be that they accept the paper as it is or that they say there's a provisional acceptance if the authors engage the revisions that have been suggested. We have two different types of reports that might come through to a journal. We have primary literature, which means the scientists did the experiment, they wrote it up, and they've submitted the paper, or we have secondary literature, and this is essentially a synthesis of other people's research. You might hear the term literature review. It literally means a review of the other literature, the primary literature. A literature review can be very helpful if you need to make a decision in practice. What is the summary of the science currently available? But there are other places where science is communicated as well, and these may also include informal peer review, such as at academic conferences. Presentations made to peers. We also have reports that might be made to funding bodies or governments, and editorials or reviews that may also be published in academic journals, but also outside of this sphere as well.