Call for Submissions: Science Communication and Broad Societal Change

The international journal Science Communication: Linking Theory and Practice is seeking papers for a special issue on Science Communication and Broad Societal Change.

From the call for papers:

Increasingly, government funding for scientific research requires that research to have a broad societal impact. Researchers often propose to achieve this impact at least in part through public communication, assuming that engaging the public in science is a worthwhile end in itself or will necessarily serve to raise knowledge levels and change attitudes. Most also seem to assume that communication can play a key role in bolstering the societal impact of the scientific enterprise. Yet, are these assumptions justified?

Theoretically informed, systematic research on the role of science communication in bringing about changes in society is essential. Developing solid evidence about the broader impacts of science communication is methodologically difficult but very important for the field. Papers are welcome from a variety of perspectives and from a wide range in terms of analytical scope, from focused case studies to the analysis of national and global trends.

Submissions are due November 1, 2016.  For more information, please visit this announcement.  You may also contact the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Susanna Priest at editorscicom@gmail.com, or the issue’s guest editors, Maarten van der Sanden at M.C.A.vanderSanden@tudelft.nl or William Evans at wevans@ua.edu, with further questions.