February 24, 2014

#scioTradLit at #scio14

I'm excited to be leading a discussion at this week's ScienceOnline conference in Raleigh called “How Traditional Research Literature Should Change to Improve Access to Scientific Knowledge.”

Many of us at ScienceOnline read primary research literature, but even here, the audience of readers is quite diverse. We range from high school students to professors of PhD students; we include journalists and public relations experts; some of us are science fans with no scientific training.

Here are some of the questions we'll ponder together:
  • Is there a way for teachers and/or journalists to teach readers not only how to read the scholarly literature, but also how to be skeptical of science? 
  • How can scientists help non-experts understand their work?
  • How do we access the primary literature? 
  • How can we encourage publishers and authors to participate in more open access publishing, and is that realistic? 
  • What are other ways that students, faculty, journalists, and the general public can access the primary literature?
 If you'll be at the conference, join me Thursday Feb. 27 from 4:00pm - 5:00pm in Room 6 (McKimmon Center).

If you're following from afar, join in the discussion & follow the thread at the ScienceOnline Forum site.