FORUM FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

Would you like to see some part of the conference again? You can find it in the playlist 2020 Forum för forskningskommunikation on Youtube (in Swedish).

See you at Forum for Science Communication 2021, the date is not set yet but the conference will take place during the International Science festival week 15!

Stay up to date about the conference via our Facebook group. Here you can also share and find tips about workshops, new findings, methods and lots more related to science communication.

Follow us on social media #vetfestFFF

During the ongoing pandemic, much has changed – including how we communicate research. What new conditions and challenges do we face? How do we manage the uncertainty of knowledge that is gradually evolving? This, and much more, was discussed at this year’s Forum for Science Communication, which was arranged for the eighth consecutive year – and in a fully digital format for the first time.

The Forum for Science Communication, or Forum för Forskningskommunikation in Swedish, FFF for short, was held on 1 October in conjunction with the International Science Festival in Gothenburg and attracted some 370 participants.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, science and research have taken centre stage, said Anna Maria Fleetwood, a senior advisor to the Swedish Research Council, when opening the forum. This has created challenges in research communication and has also emphasised the need for science literacy – an understanding of the scientific method.

New insights into research communication in Sweden
Gustav Bohlin, a researcher at the non-profit Vetenskap & Allmänhet, offered few revelations from three studies conducted by Vetenskap & Allmänhet over the past year. [1]

A majority of researchers within Swedish academia are positively inclined to communicating their research to the public (a total of 90 per cent), and over half wish that they could communicate more than is currently the case. Obstacles to increased communication include a lack of resources, knowledge, support and training in this area.

An analysis of research and research communication in Sweden shows that few Swedish researchers are published in the most important periodicals. Many were participating in the webinar when this survey was presented, so we may have good reason to expect increased activity in this field moving forward.

One ongoing study examining Swedish citizens and their views on communication on the coronavirus has been conducting regular surveys since March 2020. Nine surveys have been conducted so far. At the beginning of the pandemic, a large majority (76 per cent) turned to traditional news media for information while only two per cent relied primarily on social media. The survey at the end of September produced very similar results.

Challenges for research communications officers during the pandemic
The participants answered questions during the forum via Mentimeter. Jenny Björkman, Director of Collaboration at Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and Cissi Askwall, Secretary General at Vetenskap & Allmänhet, spoke on the basis of the responses to the question “What have been the greatest challenges during the pandemic?”

The most poignant responses were those concerning loneliness. Other challenges included scant social contact, a steep learning curve for digital technology and sub-standard working conditions when working from home.

“However, when one door closes, others open. You have to think outside the box, that’s when you see new opportunities,” said Cissi Askwall.

She noted that the pandemic has been a game changer. It has become a given for researchers to be involved in public debate, and as such university leaders and politicians need to create favourable conditions for researchers to tackle the communication obstacles they currently face.

Jenny Björkman was keen to emphasise the need to understand that science does not always deliver but rather works continually with the uncertain, and that THIS is what science is.

After a short break featuring robot yoga created by the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology, research communication was considered from three perspectives – those of the university, the target audience and the communications officer.

The desire to be the first to share
Since the pandemic began, nothing has been the same, said Peter Andréasson, Chief Press Officer at Karolinska Institutet. The need for knowledge and interest in research on the coronavirus and Covid-19 have been insatiable. Researchers from all corners of the world are working together to speed the way to our shared goal of defeating the pandemic.

“We’re seeing clear signs that Covid-19 has changed both the mentality and attitudes among researchers,” said Peter Andréasson, and quoted the Vice-Chancellor of Karolinska Institutet: “Researchers have gone from wanting to be the first to publish to wanting to be the first to share.”

Pressure from society and from the researchers themselves has led to faster, more open and earlier access to research results, even those which are only preliminary. How universities and research communication officers are to manage a situation in which increasingly more non-peer-reviewed knowledge is being made available via open sources is something we need to discuss, Peter Andréasson underlined.

Karolinska Institutet has established an internal resource group that will serve to ensure the quality of any non-peer-reviewed findings made available. The group, which is comprised of senior researchers, is important and enables Karolinska Institutet to feel more confident in its communication efforts involving preliminary research findings.

Peter Andréasson also underscored the importance of making it extremely clear that the findings are preliminary.

Reporting from the centre of the pandemic
A pandemic often sees the emergence of what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls an infodemic – the spreading of rumours, information and disinformation – and this creates misunderstanding. According to Amina Manzoor, a medical reporter at the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, we are now in the midst of such an infodemic.

This includes, for example, press conferences, daily infection statistics, countless research results, political actions and market forces surrounding vaccines and pharmaceuticals that result in PR hype.

“And in the midst of all this are the journalists, trying to offer balanced reporting,” Amina Manzoor summarised the whole.

She explained that when she started reporting on the coronavirus, she was quite alone in covering these matters, and she was careful to check the quality of the information she received. As time went on, and journalists other than those specialised in science began reporting on the pandemic, Dagens Nyheter produced an extended checklist for reporting in this new situation with very preliminary results. According to the checklist, the journalists are to be particularly careful with unpublished, non-peer-reviewed studies, such as by checking with other researchers or consulting more than one study.

Preprint, an academic paper yet to be peer reviewed, is a challenge, according to Amina Manzoor.

“Naturally, it’s positive and a good thing that researchers are sharing, but I wish more people, among both the public and journalists, understood that these are preliminary findings.”

The changing role of the communications officer
“The pandemic has made communication more visible,” said Hanna Brogren, Secretary General of the Swedish Association of Communication Professionals. She felt that the complexity of the communications officer’s role has become clear. At the same time, major changes are under way.

This involves, for example, creating motivation, driving innovation with new work methods, showing how things are progressing and, most of all, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes – seeing things from the other side.

Hanna Brogren saw the need to manage changing media habits, the storm of messages to relate to and the extreme polarisation. In addition to this, she believes that ethics and cyber security will receive more attention in the communications officer’s new role – and this will mean a need for new skills.

Advice to the participants?
Amina Manzoor: Be very clear in your contact with the media as to what is certain and what is uncertain information.

Peter Andréasson: Researchers, the mass media and communications officers need to discuss how the uncertainty of preliminary knowledge production is to be managed – and who is to be responsible for what.

Hanna Brogren: Stay curious, update your skills and make sure you have a good network to fall back on.

Finally, Anna Maria Fleetwood revealed that more FFF pop-ups, smaller digital seminar throughout the year, are in the pipeline. Follow the FFF Facebook group for more information!

[1] “Jag vill men hinner inte! – Forskares syn på kommunikation och öppen vetenskap”(I want to, but I don’t have time! – Researchers’ views on communication and open science) (2019), in collaboration with Formas, Forte, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova, “Forskning om forskningskommunikation i Sverige – en översiktlig kartläggning” (Research on research communication in Sweden – A general analysis) (2020), on behalf of the Swedish Research Council, and “Kommunikation om corona – Medierapportering och förtroende i samband med covid-19-pandemin” (Communication on the coronavirus – Media reporting and trust in conjunction with the Covid-19 pandemic) (2020), in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet and Södertörn University, with funding from Anderstiftelsen, Karolinska Institutet, Södertörn University and the Swedish Research Council.