Academic publisher Springer Nature conducted a survey on ``research communication'' targeting Japanese researchers. The results showed that although about 9% of researchers want to widely disseminate their research results to the general public, about one-third have not disseminated them even once in the past three years or more.
This study was conducted to better understand researchers' habits, motivations, and challenges in research communication, including academic journals, books, non-conference press releases, media interviews, social media, and public lectures. . We also investigated what researchers are doing to communicate their research more widely, and the support they need to do so more effectively. The survey was conducted from January 2023th to February 1th, 13, and received 2 valid responses from researchers in Japan.
According to the survey, 94% of researchers believe it is important to communicate their research to a wider audience, and 87% express a strong interest in sharing their research. However, 21% of respondents said they had not communicated their research to the wider community in the past three years, and 3% said they had never disseminated their research. .
Of the respondents who have communicated research to the wider community in the past three years, 3% chose to communicate research they thought was of societal interest, and 64% chose to communicate research they thought was interesting. Research” is being disseminated. More than half of respondents chose press releases and public lectures as a method to disseminate their research.
Additionally, the main audiences for disseminating research results were the general public (73%), researchers in the community (61%), and students (44%), but policy makers (15%) and Few researchers answered funding agencies (12%), indicating that the outcomes of outreach activities do not necessarily take into account the impact on policy or evaluation by funding agencies.
As a motivation to communicate more about their research, 40-50% of researchers said they would like to see their research recognized as an achievement by their institution or funding agency. Next, nearly half of the respondents said they would like to see interest from the general public and students, as well as positive evaluations during the hiring process.
Furthermore, more than half of those who had not disseminated their research to the wider community in the past three years said that the reason for preventing them from disseminating their research was "lack of opportunities." Of those who communicated about their research, 3% cited ``writing in plain language for people outside of their field of expertise'' as their main communication challenge, and 66% cited writing, oral presentations, etc. It was also found that they would like support to improve their skills in media outreach through video production.
Nick Campbell of Springer Nature said, ``It's gratifying that many Japanese researchers recognize the benefits of disseminating their research to society and are taking a positive approach to it. The survey results also highlight the challenges facing Japanese researchers. Further support for the dissemination of research results and incentives to encourage such dissemination are strongly desired. Improving research communication requires buy-in from all stakeholders in Japan's research ecosystem. We collaborate with the research community, including research institutions and funding agencies, on topics of relevance to the communities we serve. We are committed to discussing and raising awareness."
