Alan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190936600
- eISBN:
- 9780197521038
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190936600.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
What is scientific research? It is the process by which we learn about the world. For this research to have an impact, and positively contribute to society, it needs to be communicated to those who ...
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What is scientific research? It is the process by which we learn about the world. For this research to have an impact, and positively contribute to society, it needs to be communicated to those who need to understand its outcomes and significance for them. Any piece of research is not complete until it has been recorded and passed on to those who need to know about it. So, good communication skills are a key attribute for researchers, and scientists today need to be able to communicate through a wide range of media, from formal scientific papers to presentations and social media, and to a range of audiences, from expert peers to stakeholders to the general public. In this book, the goals and nature of scientific communication are explored, from the history of scientific publication; through the stages of how papers are written, evaluated, and published; to what happens after publication, using examples from landmark historical papers. In addition, ethical issues relating to publication, and the damage caused by cases of fabrication and falsification, are explored. Other forms of scientific communication such as conference presentations are also considered, with a particular focus on presenting and writing for nonspecialist audiences, the media, and other stakeholders. Overall, this book provides a broad overview of the whole range of scientific communication and should be of interest to researchers and also those more broadly interested in the process how what scientists do every day translates into outcomes that contribute to society.Less
What is scientific research? It is the process by which we learn about the world. For this research to have an impact, and positively contribute to society, it needs to be communicated to those who need to understand its outcomes and significance for them. Any piece of research is not complete until it has been recorded and passed on to those who need to know about it. So, good communication skills are a key attribute for researchers, and scientists today need to be able to communicate through a wide range of media, from formal scientific papers to presentations and social media, and to a range of audiences, from expert peers to stakeholders to the general public. In this book, the goals and nature of scientific communication are explored, from the history of scientific publication; through the stages of how papers are written, evaluated, and published; to what happens after publication, using examples from landmark historical papers. In addition, ethical issues relating to publication, and the damage caused by cases of fabrication and falsification, are explored. Other forms of scientific communication such as conference presentations are also considered, with a particular focus on presenting and writing for nonspecialist audiences, the media, and other stakeholders. Overall, this book provides a broad overview of the whole range of scientific communication and should be of interest to researchers and also those more broadly interested in the process how what scientists do every day translates into outcomes that contribute to society.
Melinda Baldwin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226261454
- eISBN:
- 9780226261591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226261591.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter explores how and why a younger generation of British scientists adopted Nature as a forum of scientific communication in the 1870s and 1880s. Although men of science Norman Lockyer’s age ...
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This chapter explores how and why a younger generation of British scientists adopted Nature as a forum of scientific communication in the 1870s and 1880s. Although men of science Norman Lockyer’s age and older, including the prominent X Club, certainly contributed to the journal, they did not see Nature as a particularly desirable place to conduct scientific debates—with the notable exception of Charles Darwin. The older generation preferred more established venues such as literary periodicals or the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In contrast, younger men of science—those born in the 1840s and later, such as E. Ray Lankester and George J. Romanes—adopted Nature as the primary forum where they could debate the most important scientific questions of the day before a knowledgeable readership. The contributions of this younger generation established Nature as essential reading for British men of science in the final decades of the nineteenth century.Less
This chapter explores how and why a younger generation of British scientists adopted Nature as a forum of scientific communication in the 1870s and 1880s. Although men of science Norman Lockyer’s age and older, including the prominent X Club, certainly contributed to the journal, they did not see Nature as a particularly desirable place to conduct scientific debates—with the notable exception of Charles Darwin. The older generation preferred more established venues such as literary periodicals or the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In contrast, younger men of science—those born in the 1840s and later, such as E. Ray Lankester and George J. Romanes—adopted Nature as the primary forum where they could debate the most important scientific questions of the day before a knowledgeable readership. The contributions of this younger generation established Nature as essential reading for British men of science in the final decades of the nineteenth century.
Melinda Baldwin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226261454
- eISBN:
- 9780226261591
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226261591.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book examines the history of Nature, today perhaps the world’s most prestigious scientific journal, from its foundation in 1869 to the present day. The book traces Nature’s development from its ...
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This book examines the history of Nature, today perhaps the world’s most prestigious scientific journal, from its foundation in 1869 to the present day. The book traces Nature’s development from its nineteenth-century origins as a popular science periodical, and analyzes Nature’s place in British science, its role in furthering (and limiting) scientific internationalism, and its function in the broader world of science publishing. The book also uses Nature as a lens through which to examine the development of specialist scientific journals, now the dominant form of scientific communication. Most importantly, over the course of one hundred and twenty-six years of publication, Nature has been a site where scientific practitioners worked to define what science was and what it meant to be a scientist. Nature’s editors and contributors have engaged in a process of defining and redefining membership in their scientific community, and have used Nature to promote both their own work and their visions of what science and its practitioners should be like—a particularly crucial discussion during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when science gained a tremendous amount of social and cultural authority. The book concludes by examining Nature’s transition to online publishing.Less
This book examines the history of Nature, today perhaps the world’s most prestigious scientific journal, from its foundation in 1869 to the present day. The book traces Nature’s development from its nineteenth-century origins as a popular science periodical, and analyzes Nature’s place in British science, its role in furthering (and limiting) scientific internationalism, and its function in the broader world of science publishing. The book also uses Nature as a lens through which to examine the development of specialist scientific journals, now the dominant form of scientific communication. Most importantly, over the course of one hundred and twenty-six years of publication, Nature has been a site where scientific practitioners worked to define what science was and what it meant to be a scientist. Nature’s editors and contributors have engaged in a process of defining and redefining membership in their scientific community, and have used Nature to promote both their own work and their visions of what science and its practitioners should be like—a particularly crucial discussion during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when science gained a tremendous amount of social and cultural authority. The book concludes by examining Nature’s transition to online publishing.
Paul Dougan, Fernand Gobet, and Michael King
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199211395
- eISBN:
- 9780191695803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211395.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
Niklas Luhmann proposed that different social systems, such as law and science, encode information using different binary codes and programmes. A plausible consequence is that communications within ...
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Niklas Luhmann proposed that different social systems, such as law and science, encode information using different binary codes and programmes. A plausible consequence is that communications within those systems – for example law cases for the law system and academic journal articles for the (social) science system – should have not only different surface structures, for example style and convention, but also different semantic structures. However, it is critical to control the input to the two systems, insofar as this should relate as nearly as possible to identical topics. This chapter presents an empirical study aimed at providing some scientific evidence to support Luhmann's theory about social systems. Measurable and statistically reliable differences were observed in the semantic structure between the law and science systems of communication. The terms related to a particular domain had a higher average weight within the network associated with this domain than with the network associated with the other domain.Less
Niklas Luhmann proposed that different social systems, such as law and science, encode information using different binary codes and programmes. A plausible consequence is that communications within those systems – for example law cases for the law system and academic journal articles for the (social) science system – should have not only different surface structures, for example style and convention, but also different semantic structures. However, it is critical to control the input to the two systems, insofar as this should relate as nearly as possible to identical topics. This chapter presents an empirical study aimed at providing some scientific evidence to support Luhmann's theory about social systems. Measurable and statistically reliable differences were observed in the semantic structure between the law and science systems of communication. The terms related to a particular domain had a higher average weight within the network associated with this domain than with the network associated with the other domain.
Brian E. Perron and David F. Gillespie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199855483
- eISBN:
- 9780190235963
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199855483.003.0006
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
A variety of resources exist that guide researchers on the empirical aspects of measurement issues, with a focus on factor analysis. These resources are helpful for promoting rigorous research, ...
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A variety of resources exist that guide researchers on the empirical aspects of measurement issues, with a focus on factor analysis. These resources are helpful for promoting rigorous research, consistency in the use and interpretation, and helping ensure consistency among reviewers in the peer review process. One limitation of these resources is the minimal attention given to the theoretical and conceptual issues that must be fully considered and appreciated before we can make substantive interpretations of empirical results. The purpose of this chapter is to fill this gap in practical resources by offering both authors and reviewers suggestions for thinking about key theoretical and conceptual issues in measurement. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part contains a few guiding principles that are necessary in advancing the field's thinking about measurement issues. These are considered guiding principles because they do not prescribe or proscribe any particular action. Rather, they are intended to serve as a lens for thinking about key measurement issues that are often problematic in social work publications. The second part of this chapter presents a set of strategies to improve measurement reporting practices in social work research.Less
A variety of resources exist that guide researchers on the empirical aspects of measurement issues, with a focus on factor analysis. These resources are helpful for promoting rigorous research, consistency in the use and interpretation, and helping ensure consistency among reviewers in the peer review process. One limitation of these resources is the minimal attention given to the theoretical and conceptual issues that must be fully considered and appreciated before we can make substantive interpretations of empirical results. The purpose of this chapter is to fill this gap in practical resources by offering both authors and reviewers suggestions for thinking about key theoretical and conceptual issues in measurement. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part contains a few guiding principles that are necessary in advancing the field's thinking about measurement issues. These are considered guiding principles because they do not prescribe or proscribe any particular action. Rather, they are intended to serve as a lens for thinking about key measurement issues that are often problematic in social work publications. The second part of this chapter presents a set of strategies to improve measurement reporting practices in social work research.
