We invite scholars of bibliometrics, science communication, journalism studies and related fields to contribute to an open access edited volume on the interplay between internal and external science communication to be published in the book series “Knowledge & Information – Studies in Information Science” by De Gruyter Saur.
The publication and distribution of scientific results is of major importance for knowledge societies (Stehr, 1994; Castelfranchi, 2007) – especially in the face of the complex and multifaceted challenges facing the world today. Major actors in the communication of scientific knowledge are researchers themselves, professional science communicators and science journalists – each with their own approach to the selection, presentation and mediation of science. Here, a distinction can be made between internal science communication, or scholarly communication, within the academic system, and external science communication involving actors from outside of the academic system. The rise of digital media however has led to great overlaps of those spheres, also resulting in deeply interwoven relationships affecting both forms of science communication. For example, studies indicate a connection between mentions of scientific publications in news articles and social media platforms, and their scientific impact (see e.g. Fanelli, 2013; Dumas-Mallet et al., 2020; Phillips et al., 1991) – however, the exact nature of this relationship has remained unclear. This takes place against a blurring of roles in internal and external science communication (Neuberger et al., 2019) in which scientific actors are increasingly able to directly address audiences (Schmidt, 2017) and in which journalistic actors are facing economic and time constraints, amongst others (Bauer et al., 2013; Schäfer, 2017).
This edited book invites original empirical and theoretical contributions that describe, quantify and critically discuss the interplay between internal and external science communication. Submissions can for instance focus on empirical analyses, novel theoretical frameworks, original datasets or represent position papers. Possible topics for contributions include (but are not limited to):
- interdependencies between scholarly works’ bibliometric impact and their presence on channels for external science communication, e.g. mainstream media,
- quantitative and/or qualitative analyses of how researchers and/or other stakeholders use different channels for the dissemination of research,
- quantitative and/or qualitative analyses of how research is discussed in non-academic (social) media,
- taxonomies of channels used for science communication,
- theoretical discussions of external communication channels’ roles in the scientific communication/publication system and implications for research assessment exercises,
- editorial practices in the journalistic coverage of scientific topics,
- technical and methodological approaches enhancing transparency and/or analytical possibilities for the interplay of internal and external scientific communication,
- reviews of the literature covering one or more of the topics mentioned above,
- etc.
Manuscripts can be submitted via EasyChair. Submitted manuscripts need to be written in English and should not exceed 7,000 words in length. A style sheet with further information on the desired formatting can be found here, a template for Microsoft Word here. All submissions will be reviewed in a double-blind peer review process.
The deadline for submissions is March 30, 2022.
The book will be edited by Irene Broer (HBI, Hamburg), Steffen Lemke (ZBW, Kiel), Dr. Athanasios Mazarakis (CAU, Kiel), Prof. Dr. Isabella Peters (ZBW, Kiel), and Dr. Christian Zinke-Wehlmann (University Leipzig). It will be published as a gold open access publication under a CC-BY license with De Gruyter Saur, with authors retaining the right to also make postprint versions of their contributions available individually. Authors of accepted publications will have to fill out a metadata collection form. Funding for the coverage of applying open access fees will be provided by the editorial team. The estimated date of publication is Spring 2023
You can find the full version of CfP here.