87% of American Association for the Advancement of Science members surveyed by Pew believe that scientists should take an active role in public policy debates. In addition, a sizable share believes that engaging with the public and news media can advance the careers of scientists, according to the new survey. The respondents were 3,748 American-based AAAS members and data find that 71% of those surveyed believe the public has either some or a lot of interest in their specialty area and 53% say there is a lot or some debate in the news about their field.
The participants were 71% male and 39% were over age 64 so calibrate the validity accordingly. Many young and minority researchers clearly do not desire to pay for a magazine subscription and that means their beliefs are not being included in this survey. The results may be even higher for the missing demographic, and it is certainly the case that old white men subscribing to Science magazine are not doing the bulk of the science outreach being done. In other words, it is easy to say engagement is important as long as someone else does it.
The key data:
- 43% of Science magazine subscribers say it is "important" or "very important" for scientists in their specialty to get coverage of their work in news media, up from 37% who said that in a 2009 survey.
- 22% describe it as either "very important" (4%) or "important" (18%) for career advancement in their discipline to promote their findings on social media such as Facebook or Twitter.
- At the same time, 79% of Science magazine subscribers believe it is a major problem for science that news reports do not distinguish between well-founded and not well-founded scientific findings. Further, 52% say that simplification of scientific findings is a major problem for science in general.
"Science topics are increasingly becoming part of the public debate and scientists clearly feel they should be in the arena," said Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center director of Internet, science and technology research. "These views link to a broad feeling in the science community that things are not as good as they used to be, that the research funding environment is more precarious, and policy decisions in key areas like land use and environmental quality are not often based on the best science."
The survey was conducted using a probability-based sample of the adult population by landline and cellular telephone Aug. 15-25, 2014, with a representative sample of 2,002 adults nationwide. The survey of Science magazine subscribers was conducted online with a random sample of 3,748 U.S.-based people from September 11 to October 13, 2014.
Other key findings:
- Scientists regularly engage with the public and the media. Fully 98% of Science magazine subscribers say they have some level of interaction with citizens and 51% have at least some contact with reporters about research findings. Mid-career and older scientists are more likely than others to speak to reporters.
- Nearly half of Science magazine subscribers (47%) use social media to talk about science or read about scientific developments. Some 24% say they blog about science and research. Blogging is something that equally spans the generations under age 65, but younger scientists are more likely to use social media. Fully 70% of the scientists under age 35 use social media, compared with 44% of those ages 50-64 and 30% of those 65 and older.
- Scientists who are more engaged often use multiple methods and platforms to connect with the public. Some 41% of Science magazine subscribers report that they "often" or "occasionally" do at least two of these four activities: 1) talk with non-experts about science topics, 2) talk with the media, 3) use social media or 4) blog. Nearly half (48%) do one of these four activities either often or occasionally and 11% do none of these on an "often" or "occasional" basis.
- Traditional information and peer networking activities are the most common ways scientists stay up-to-date. 84% of Science magazine subscribers read journal articles outside of their primary fields or scientific disciplines and 79% say they attend professional meetings, workshops and lectures.
- Digital communications are also a common part of the learning activities of scientists as they connect with peers: 58% get email alerts from journals in their specialty; 56% get emails from general science journals; 32% belong to email list-servs; 19% follow blogs by experts their fields; and 12% follow tweets or other postings in social media by experts in their field.
These findings are for immediate release and available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/02/15/how-scientists-engage-public/.