scholarly journals What does the UK public want from academic science communication?

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1261 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Redfern ◽  
Sam Illingworth ◽  
Joanna Verran
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Academic Science ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Hands On ◽  
The Uk

The overall aim of public academic science communication is to engage a non-scientist with a particular field of science and/or research topic, often driven by the expertise of the academic. An e-survey was designed to provide insight into respondent’s current and future engagement with science communication activities. Respondents provided a wide range of ideas and concerns as to the ‘common practice’ of academic science communication, and whilst they support some of these popular approaches (such as open-door events and science festivals), there are alternatives that may enable wider engagement. Suggestions of internet-based approaches and digital media were strongly encouraged, and although respondents found merits in methods such as science festivals, limitations such as geography, time and topic of interest were a barrier to engagement for some. Academics and scientists need to think carefully about how they plan their science communication activities and carry out evaluations, including considering the point of view of the public, as although defaulting to hands-on open door events at their university may seem like the expected standard, it may not be the best way to reach the intended audience.

Internet-derived Patient Information on Common Oral Pathologies: Is it Readable?

2004 ◽  
Vol os11 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivor G Chestnutt
Keyword(s):  
Patient Information ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Internet Searches ◽  
The Uk

Background The evolution of the Internet has made available to the public vast reserves of information, and it represents a tremendous educational resource. However, it is obviously important that information directed at patients is readable and understandable. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the readability of patient-related Internet sites presenting information on dental caries, periodontal disease, oral cancer and mouth ulcers. Methodology Four separate Internet searches seeking patient information on these pathologies were conducted in May 2003. In total, 5127 sites were identified. Within each search, the first 25 sites identified as of relevance to patients seeking information were downloaded (100 in total), and the readability determined using the Flesch reading score and the Flesch-Kinkaid reading level. Results A wide range of reading ease scores was obtained, equating to reading ages from seven years to university entry level. The mean reading age of the sites evaluated was 10–11 years of age, higher than the estimated reading age of the UK population in general (nine years). Scores were broadly similar across different pathologies. Conclusions Practitioners and other members of the dental team involved in patient education should be aware that additional advice and support may be required to help patients interpret material downloaded from the Internet. Furthermore, those practices presenting educational material on their practice website should bear in mind the need to ensure that it is pitched at a level appropriate to the intended audience.

Marketing Town Centres: Retailing and Town Centre Management

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Warnaby ◽  
David Bennison ◽  
Barry J. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Place Marketing ◽  
Marketing Practice ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Town Centre ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Consensual Approach

The role of town centre management (TCM) schemes in the UK has expanded to incorporate a more overt and explicit focus on marketing and promotion. This paper considers the marketing/promotional activities of TCM schemes in the UK. TCM schemes operate at the interface of the public and private sectors. The implications of this are discussed, including the need for a consensual approach by a wide range of urban stakeholders, and the actual activities undertaken, influenced by the funding imperative under which such schemes operate (which impacts on the feasibility of certain activities and the efforts made to evaluate them). Comparisons are drawn between specific place marketing practice by TCM schemes and wider place marketing strategies.

scholarly journals Collaboration for chemistry communication: Insights from a research-practice partnership

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (04) ◽  
pp. N01
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Kunz Kollmann ◽  
Marta Beyer ◽  
Emily Howell ◽  
Allison Anderson ◽  
Owen Weitzman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Informal Education ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Science Museums ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Perceived Relevance ◽  
Data Collections

As several recent National Academies of Sciences reports have highlighted, greater science communication research is needed on 1) communicating chemistry, and 2) building research-practice partnerships to advance communication across science issues. Here we report our insights in both areas, gathered from a multi-year collaboration to advance our understanding of how to communicate about chemistry with the public. Researchers and practitioners from science museums across the U.S. partnered with academic social scientists in science communication to develop and conduct multi-strand data collections on chemistry communication and informal education. Our focus was on increasing interest in, the perceived relevance of, and self-efficacy concerning chemistry through hands-on activities and connecting chemistry to broader themes concerning everyday life and societal impacts. We outline challenges and benefits of the project that future collaborations can gain from and illustrate how our strands of work complemented each other to create a more complete picture of public perceptions of chemistry.

The UK Policy Agendas Project

2019 ◽  
pp. 176-183
Author(s):  
Shaun Bevan ◽  
Will Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Front Page ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Public ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The Times ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
The Uk

The UK Policy Agendas Project has collected a wide range of data on the policy agenda of major institutional venues in British politics and on the public and media agendas. This rich data source allows systematic and consistent analysis across institutions, and across countries, extending back over a century in the case of some agendas. The data provide measures of the policy agenda of the executive (the Speech from the Throne) and the legislature (Acts of UK Parliament), along with aggregate survey data about the public agenda (public opinion about the most important problem), media (front-page stories of The Times), Prime Minister’s Questions, and bills and hearings of the Scottish Parliament. Through its extensive collection of data, the project has enabled novel insights into the policy agenda of UK government, how it responds to shocks and external pressures, and how patterns of policy change and stability compare to other countries.

scholarly journals About this title - Geological Hazards in the UK: Their Occurrence, Monitoring and Mitigation – Engineering Group Working Party Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. NP-NP
Author(s):  
D. P. Giles ◽  
J. S. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Working Party ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Engineering Geologist ◽  
Geological Hazards ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Swelling And Shrinking

The UK is perhaps unique globally in that it presents the full spectrum of geological time, stratigraphy and associated lithologies within its boundaries. With this wide range of geological assemblages comes a wide range of geological hazards, whether they be geophysical (earthquakes, effects of volcanic eruptions, tsunami, landslides), geotechnical (collapsible, compressible, liquefiable, shearing, swelling and shrinking soils), geochemical (dissolution, radon and methane gas hazards) or georesource related (coal, chalk and other mineral extraction). An awareness of these hazards and the risks that they pose is a key requirement of the engineering geologist.The Geological Society considered that a Working Party Report would help to put the study and assessment of geohazards into the wider social context, helping the engineering geologist to better communicate the issues concerning geohazards in the UK to the client and the public. This volume sets out to define and explain these geohazards, to detail their detection, monitoring and management and to provide a basis for further research and understanding.

scholarly journals Public interest in immunity: justification for intervention in the early stages of COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunna Kwan ◽  
Jinhee Lee ◽  
Jun Young Lee ◽  
Keum Hwa Lee ◽  
Sung Hwi Hong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Google Search

UNSTRUCTURED Our study aimed to identify the interest and correlation between the proliferation of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), interest in immunity and products that have been discussed to confer an enhancement of immunity, while suggesting the measures of intervention to be undertaken from a health and medical point of view. To assess the level of public interest in infectious disease during the initial days of the outbreak of COVID-19, we extracted Google search data from the past year based on the date of 15th of March 2020, which is approximately two months after the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to determine whether the public became interested in the immune system, we selected ‘coronavirus’, ‘immune’, ‘vitamin’ as our final search term. The increase in cumulative confirmed cases of coronavirus after January 20 had a strong positive correlation with search volumes for the terms ‘coronavirus’ (R = 0.786, P < .0001), ‘immune’ (R = 0.745, P < .0001) and ‘vitamin’ (R = 0.778, P < .0001), and the variables were all mutually statistically significant. Moreover, these correlations were confirmed on a country-basis when we restricted analyses to the US, the UK, Italy, and Korea. Our findings revealed that increases in search volumes for ‘coronavirus’ and ‘immune’ preceded the actual occurrences of confirmed cases. Our study implicates that during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, the public’s desire and actions to strengthen their own immune systems were enhanced. Further, in the early stage of a pandemic there is a high potential of social media to inform the public about potentially helpful measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and provide relevant information about immunity and thereby increase the knowledge.

The Oxford Handbook of Public History

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Public History ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Thoughtful Reflection ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
The Subject

Public history is a large and complex field, with boundaries, methods, and subjects that are hotly debated. This handbook reflects the complexities of the subject, while at the same time helping to shape it. It introduces the major debates within public history; the methods and sources that comprise a public historian’s toolkit; and exemplary examples of practice. The book views public history as a dynamic process combining the hands-on skills of historical research and a wide range of work with and for the public, informed by a conceptual context. It defines public history work as analytical and active—practical work informed by thoughtful reflection—and locates public history as a professional practice within an intellectual framework that is increasingly democratic, technological, and transnational. While the nation state remains the primary means of identification for many, increased mobility and the digital revolution have occasioned a much broader outlook and awareness of the world beyond the local, shaping not only our lives today but also our understanding of the past. This volume will provide the information and inspiration needed by a practitioner to succeed in the wide range of workplaces that characterize public history today, for university teachers of public history to assist their students, and for working public historians to keep up to date with recent research.

scholarly journals Interlending and resource sharing in UK public libraries: A mixed methods study

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Wakeling ◽  
Sophie Rutter ◽  
Briony Birdi ◽  
Stephen Pinfield
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
The Public ◽  
Library Funding ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

This paper presents the results of a mixed methods study of interlending and resource sharing in UK public libraries, based on the results of a survey distributed to both senior library managers and interlending staff, and in-depth follow-up interviews with 20 respondents. We present an analysis of perspectives towards rates of interlending, the rationales and strategies for providing the service, the perceived value for money offered by various interlending schemes, the impact of the current digital environment, and views on the future of interlending in the UK. Our findings suggest that while interlending services are undoubtedly threatened by the drastic cuts to public library funding, and that demand for the service is more generally in decline, resource sharing is viewed by some as a potential means of mitigating the effects of increasingly limited acquisitions budgets, and ensuring the public library system continues to provide access to a wide range of resources for its users.

29. Parliament and Public Engagement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Leston-Bandeira ◽  
Aileen Walker
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk

This chapter examines why the UK Parliament has invested heavily in public engagement over the last decade. Since the 1960s, the UK Parliament has been facilitating public engagement through a variety of ways. However, it is also an institution which is far more vulnerable and criticized by both the public and media. The chapter first defines public engagement before discussing the importance of parliamentary public engagement today. Four key inter-related factors that explain the rise in the importance of public engagement for parliaments are highlighted: the steady trend of increasing scepticism towards politics; the improved access to education and information; the increased opportunities created by digital media; and the growing appeal of participatory democracy. The chapter goes on to analyse how public engagement developed in Parliament and asks whether this has led to changes in public attitudes towards the institution.

Wider applications for Lean

2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Bateman ◽  
Peter Hines ◽  
Peter Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lean Principles ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lean Enterprise ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk

Purpose – The lean enterprise model has been adopted in a wide range of industries beyond its origins in the motor industry. To achieve this there has been a considerable extension of the lean concept outside high-volume repetitive manufacture. The purpose of this paper is to present an in-depth study of the application of lean within the British Royal Air Force. It offers a number of new insights which have implications for the future development and adoption of lean in service contexts, and the public sector in particular. Design/methodology/approach – To illustrate the issues of application of lean outside automotive, this paper considers the adoption of the lean concept by the Tornado joint integrated project team within the UK Ministry of Defence. A review of methods of application of lean used within Tornado are studied. The paper considers how the fundamental principles of lean apply in this environment and how, considering these principles, methods of implementation should be modified. Findings – This paper finds that the five lean fundamental principles apply in Tornado but they need to considered specifically within the public service context particularly the pull principle. Hence the authors offer three propositions relating to the use of the lean principles of value, waste, flow and pull in the public sector, and one for perfection only relating to military organisations. Originality/value – This paper makes an important contribution by demonstrating that lean can be successfully applied, in a public service context, with only modest modifications to its core principles, principally about how customer demand (pull) is managed. The implication of this finding demonstrates that to be adopted successfully, lean must be adapted to its context and the lean principles need to be reviewed too.

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