Elsevier Announces the “Article of the Future”

I think this prototype "Article of the Future" from Elsevier is great. It's basically a web interface that succeeds in making plain vanilla printed science journal articles easy to read, interactive and engaging.

Some of the key features are clickable graphics, audio interviews with the scientists who wrote the paper and embedded videos. Plus it's incredibly easy and intuitive to dig through the references (making it easier than ever to see if you've been cited in the article yourself!).

It's only when you see the original PDFs of the articles that you realise quite what an achievment this prototype interface is - instead of having to print out every article, Elsevier and their imprint Cell Press have come up with a way of making them easy to read on-screen.

Here are some of the main points from the full press release which on AlpaGalileo.org...

The Article of the Future launches its first prototypes this week, revealing a new approach to presenting scientific research online. The key feature of the prototypes is a hierarchical presentation of text and figures so that readers can elect to drill down through the layers based on their current task in the scientific workflow and their level of expertise and interest. This organizational structure is a significant departure from the linear-based organization of a traditional print-based article in incorporating the core text and supplemental material within a single unified structure.

A second key feature of the prototypes is bulleted article highlights and a graphical abstract. This allows readers to quickly gain an understanding of the paper’s main ‘take home’ message and serves as a navigation mechanism to directly access specific sub-sections of the results and figures. The graphical abstract is intended to encourage browsing, promote interdisciplinary scholarship and help readers identify more quickly which papers are most relevant to their research interests.

Top 10 Tips for Science Communication

Here are the Top 10 Best Practice Tips from the recent Communicating Science conference at Engineers Ireland. It was a really interesting event with lots of thought provoking discussion - and these tips came out of a flurry of brainstorming activity.

Given the likely cutbacks in Irish science funding announced in the "Bord Snip Nua" report yesterday, it's more important than ever for all of us involved in science to pro-actively convince taxpayers and politicians that important research should continue to be funded.

And given the limited money available to promote science now it makes sense to follow these best practice tips to get value for money from all science communication activities...

TOP 10 BEST PRACTICE TIPS
FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

DEVELOPED BY THE ORGANISERS AND DELEGATES AT THE
THIRD ANNUAL COMMUNICATING SCIENCE CONFERENCE.

ENGINEERS IRELAND, MAY 21, 2009

1. Collaboration: Work with others. Look for
unexpected partnerships, for example, artists
and engineers.

2. Empowerment: Create opportunities for
teachers to excite students about science.

3. Enthusiasm: Be an enthusiastic advocate
for science in your community.

4. Planning: Be aware of other science
communication programmes and use the
resources and experience of others.

5. Context: Be aware that those who are least
interested in science often have great
influence.

6. Community Engagement: Start at
primary school level and get students, parents
and teachers to promote science. Encourage
volunteering.

7. Gender Awareness: Disarm taken-forgranted
social and gender biases that prevent
people from engaging in science and
technology.

8. Evaluate: Assess the behavioural change
you are achieving and make your evaluations
public.

9. Technology: Use SMS, blogging,
webcasting and social networking sites, as well
as traditional methods, to promote science.
Make it interactive.

10. Change Behaviours: Select groups and
work with them to voluntarily change or
modify behaviour, e.g., get career guidance
teachers to motivate students to choose
science careers.

And there's also a good overview of the day's talks on Piaras Kelly's Public Relations in Ireland blog too.

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Spinning Science - Training for Scientists

With money so tight everywhere now Irish researchers urgently need to get out there and tell taxpayers why they should continue to receive funding.

Otherwise they might simply be forgotten about and find themselves in financial trouble very soon.

I hope lots of scientists take the time to go to the workshops on communicating science being run by the Science Spin magazine team. As they say themselves:

Scientists in Ireland have long been wary of the 'media' and its potential for harm. There has been little appreciation of the benefits that come from media coverage.
[...]

Now, for a scientist working at third-level to be successful, he must be very adept at making the case for why he should receive funding. For without funding, nothing can be achieved. To do this, he must be adept at communicating messages to a number of key audiences.

The one-day workshop programme looks very comprehensive with Sean Duke, Joint Editor of Science Spin aiming to provide scientists "with the skills, and insider knowledge you require, to achieve your communication goals."

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And they're off... Science at Cheltenham

There's a nice slideshow overview of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival on-line. It's narrated by Kathy Sykes and gives a good preview of the festival's events.

The festival programme itself looks great - and it claims that "With a theme of Heresy, the festival will challenge your thinking, whatever your age, on all things science". And there'll be a real who's who of science-related celebrities at it from Dara O'Briain to Carol Vorderman. The festival runs from 3-7 June 2009.

The slideshow is worth watching if only for the slightly menacing picture of UK Science Minister Paul Drayson they've chosen:



Are you at the festival? E-mail me or leave a comment to let me know how you're getting on and what the best things are! Thanks, Diarmaid

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