Resources
Looking to improve your science communication? Here are some web resources you may find helpful.
Why communicate about science?
Effective Communication, Better Science – a quick read that defines science communication more broadly
Why Communicate Science? – why scientists should explains science to non-scientists and generally have a much greater presence in society. If Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein found the time for it, so should we!
Why We Need Science Communication
What Does Research Say About How To Effectively Communicate About Science?
Is It Your Duty To Communicate Your Science?
Science, Politics And Science Communication
Storytelling in science
Alan Alda On The Art Of Science Communication: ‘I Want To Tell You A Story’
How To Communicate Your Work Through Stories
And, But, Therefore: Randy Olson And The Art Of Science Storytelling Part 1
And, But, Therefore: Randy Olson And The Art Of Science Storytelling Part 2
And, But, Therefore: Randy Olson And The Art Of Science Storytelling Part 3
Using Narratives And Storytelling To Communicate Science With Nonexpert Audiences
WRITING
Books on writing
Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words by David Lindsay
Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword
How to write a Better Thesis by Evans, Gruba & Zobel * E-book $16.99
How to write a Better Minor Thesis by Gruba and Zobel *E-book $11.99
Blogs on writing
I’m Writing A Journal Article – What Literatures Do I Choose?
You Have To Believe That What You Do Matters
Writing Introductions: First Or Last?
Writing Guides- Colorado State University
Readability tests
The Writer’s Diet- Is Your Writing Flabby Or Fit?
The Flesch Reading Ease Readability Formula
General science writing advice
Give Us Science Stories That Illuminate, Not Click-Bait
The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing
Stephen King On Writing, Fear, And The Atrocity Of Adverbs
10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly
11 Smart Tips For Brilliant Writing
Secrets Of Good Science Writing
Communication: The best words in the best order
Science Writing: Some Tips for Beginners
Carl Zimmer’s Advice For Aspiring Science Writers
Why Academics Stink At Writing
Some Well-Known Tricks For Clear Writing
Advice For Scientists Who Want To Write For The Public
Writing a journal article
How To Write A Scientific Paper
Righting Scientific Writing: Focus On Your Main Message
Infographic: How To Write Better Science Papers
Tips For Writing Better Science Papers
The 5 Pivotal Paragraphs In A Paper
Writing a lay summary
Lay Abstracts And Summaries: Writing Advice For Scientists
Opinion: Lay summaries needed to enhance science communication
Scenarios For Writing Lay Summaries
Writing a conference abstract
Writing A Better Conference Abstract
How To Write A Scientific Abstract In 6 Easy Steps
How To Write A Killer Conference Abstract
Distracted By Abstracts: Tips For Writing A Good Abstract For A Scientific Conference
Writing The Academic Conference Proposal
Writing An Abstract: Understanding And Developing Abstracts
Writing a literature review
Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review
Guidelines For Writing A Review Article
Tips for writing your first scientific literature review article
How To Write A Good Scientific Literature Review
Writing a project proposal
Writing A Research Proposal: A Guide For Science and Engineering Students
Critical reading
Critical Thinking – Critical Reading
Infographic: How To Read A Scientific Paper
How to (seriously) read a scientific paper
English grammar and expression support
Science blogging
Ten Essential Qualities of Science Bloggers, from PLOSBLOGS
6 Quick and easy ways to better explain science to non-scientists
5 Ways to Improve Your Science Writing
How to create a successful science blog
Science Blogging — Finding Your Voice
Blogging Tips for Science Bloggers From Science Bloggers
Why do academics blog? An analysis of audiences, purposes and challenges
SPEAKING
General public speaking advice
8 classic storytelling techniques for engaging presentations
How to give a dynamic scientific presentation
How to speak so that people want to listen – Ted Talk
Presentations: Pressure to perform
Career toolkit: Crafting an impressive presentation
Communication: Two minutes to impress
7 habits of highly successful speakers
Advice on Giving a Scientific Talk
How to Become an Authentic Speaker
The Top 5 TEDTalks on how to give a great TED talk
Science stories, not science talks
The elevator pitch
The elevator pitch: more harm than good?
Conference talks
A David Letterman-like countdown to the 10 biggest pitfalls in scientific presentations
Talking the Talk: Tips on Giving a Successful Conference Presentation
Using PowerPoint effectively
10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea, from TED’s in-house expert
How to avoid death By PowerPoint
Let’s ban PowerPoint in lectures – it makes students more stupid and professors more boring
Using PowerPoint to shine on stage
Making Better PowerPoint Presentations
The power of pictures. How we can use images to promote and communicate science
Academic conferences
The PhD’s Guide to Academic Conferences
How to make the most of academic conferences – five tips
10 Tips for grad students to make the most of a scientific conference
Networking tips for graduate students
Advice: how to network at conferences
Crash course on socializing at a scientific conference dinner
An Introvert’s Guide to Conference Networking
Don’t be a conference troll: a guide to asking good questions
Working with your research supervisor
Ten types of PhD supervisor relationships – which is yours?
PhD students: what to do if you don’t work well with your supervisor
Top 10 ways to annoy your PhD supervisors
3 Step Method Of Communicating Effectively With Your PhD Supervisor
What to Expect from your PhD Supervisor
Applying for grants
The ins and outs of research grant funding committees
Research funding: 10 tips for writing a successful application
Research grant applications 101
Dr. No Money: The Broken Science Funding System
The words that make a successful research grant application
Imposter syndrome
Imposter Syndrome and Academic Writing
Think like an impostor, and you’ll go far in academia
One Scientist’s Approach to the Imposter Syndrome
Social media for scientists
An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists
It’s time for scientists to tweet
Do blog posts correlate with a higher number of future citations?
What is Twitter? – a crash course
Why should scientists use Twitter?
A scientist’s guide to social media
New study reveals how scientists use social media
How I Use Social Media as a Scientist
Using Instagram for Science Communication
Learning to Instagram Science – #LSUSciFund
Scientist Guide to Social Media – this article has an awesome table comparing the different platforms, as well as tips for each different platform
A social media survival guide for scientists – some excellent survival tips to responsibly using social media for science communication
How social media helps scientists get the message across – results from a study showing that research shared on social media (mainly Twitter) gets more academic citations
Ten Reasons for Academics to Use Social Media and Twitter – look the title basically sums it up. 10 punchy reasons, an easy skim read
Social media as a scientist: a very quick guide – a quick, condensed guide to using social media for science, and examples of how you can use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to network, exchange scientific ideas, or advance a career
Social media: A network boost – a thorough guide how scientists can use Twitter to increase their networks, as well as how employers use Twitter when recruiting
Scientists, do you want to succeed on Twitter? Here’s how many followers you need – a look into how many followers is needed to start reaching the broader public
Citations are not enough: Academic promotion panels must take into account a scholar’s presence in popular media – why research publications are not nearly as high reaching as social media, and why scholars’ influence on policy and public debates should be considered just as much as publications
How Articles Get Noticed and Advance the Scientific Conversation – explaining that the best way to get a newly published article more attention is to Tweet about it, as well as 5 great tips to get you started on Twitter
Science Communication Breakdown – a blog full of tips on science blogging
Science Blogging and Citations – a blog post explaining a paper about how science blogging can increase the citations of papers… It’s less confusing than it sounds I promise
Science Blogging for Institutions: Your Virtual Roundup of the ScienceWriters2014 #OrgBlog Session – an awesome roundup of tips for science blogging from a panel discussion at the National Association of Science Writers. It covers tips from starting a blog, sourcing content, developing a voice, promoting your content and metrics and analytics
Do more tweets mean higher citations? If so, Twitter can lead us to the ‘personalised journal’; pinpointing more research that is relevant to your interests – how Twitter leads to more citations, as well as using Twitter as your own resource collecting tool
Academic promotion by media presence? – it’s important that our research solves problems that are presented by society
Why We Scientists Do Instagram – why Instagram is an awesome platform for scientists, and how it helps boost visibility and correct gender stereotypes, especially for women in STEMM. There’s also includes a nice mind-map of the motivations to blog about science
A General Overview of Reddit’s Science Communities – a list of communities in Reddit that are all about science
Peer review
Explainer: the ins and outs of peer review
Peer review is in crisis, but should be fixed, not abolished
How Science Works – the Peer Review process
Peer review and scientific publishing at The Guardian
The peer review system has flaws. But it’s still a barrier to bad science
The peer-review system for academic papers is badly in need of repair
Communicating about climate change
Why is climate communication so hard?
Climate Communication – science and outreach
Science Communication and Climate Change
The Psychology of Climate Change Communication
Communicating the science of climate change
Relevant, immediate, local: guide to communicating climate change in Australia
Communicating climate change: Focus on the framing, not just the facts
Procrastination
11 Ways to Overcome Procrastination
20 Strategies to Overcome Procrastination
Why Wait? The Science Behind Procrastination
To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved