Scientific websites and blogs

By Bethan Davies, Newcastle University

 

The opportunities of online science communication

The digital age brings many opportunities for impactful science communication. The Pew Research Center (2021) reports that 86% of Americans get news on digital devices. Those under 50 years old are more likely to turn to digital devices for their news, and those under 29 especially turn to social media. Specialist sources are often seen as as more trustworthy than the traditional media, and more likely to get the science right (Pew Research Centre, 2017).

For researchers, the internet offers a way to reach households worldwide. Blogs (arranged chronologically) and websites (arranged thematically) can be a trustworthy source for both lay audiences and journalists, with high levels of perceived credibility (Su et al., 2015). They allow academics to talk about their research, explain or comment on important topics such as climate change, and to tell personal stories about their work. They can also form a means to interact meaningfully with journalists.

Blogs and websites can be set up quickly, easily and cheaply on various platforms, such as WordPress, Blogger, SquareSpace, Joomla and Drupal. Given the time and energy required to maintain an active site, they work well as a group activity. Increasingly, they are set up for specific funded projects, research groups or labs. They can also have academic benefits, increasing the visibility of research and profiles of the writers, or widening career prospects. Furthermore, most researchers are trained in writing, and most would consider this a key skill (compared with, for example, videography, comedy or drawing). 

However, in a world with thousands of science blogs and websites, how can you ensure a successful science communication strategy, and ensure that articles reach their intended audience?

 

Case study: Antarctic Glaciers

I set up www.AntarcticGlaciers.org in 2012, originally to support an Antarctic research project. Active for over 10 years, now it acts as a kind of online textbook, and covers process glaciology, glacial geology, the Antarctic, Greenland, Patagonian and British ice sheets, and disseminates cutting-edge research for public and educational use. It aims to inspire young people with glaciology, and specifically targets teachers with engaging, original content, interesting visuals and teaching resources. Currently, it has 294 webpages and 121 blog posts, arranged into introductory (age 14+), intermediate (teachers and students in post-16 education) and in-depth (undergraduate, postgraduate and professionals) articles. It also has unique interactive teaching resources, such as the Younger Dryas Glacial Map, and the prize-winning Antarctic StoryMap Series.

The website has been recognised externally with a 2020 Certificate of Excellence from the Geologists Association, the 2022 SCAR Medal for Antarctic Education and Communication, and is cited by NASA JPL and NASA Earth Observatory, the National Geographic, NSIDC, American Geophysical Union, Royal Geographical Society, Geologists’ Association and RealClimate.org, as well as numerous news outlets. Journalists frequently reach out through the website.

AntarcticGlaciers.org is used as a teaching resource by universities and schools worldwide, which is tracked by referrals (inbound links) and direct emails. Website resources have been used in textbooks for GCSE and A Level Geography, and in several MOOCs. Google Analytics shows that a substantial portion of the website audience are engaged in the education sector.

Since launch, AntarcticGlaciers.org has had 4.6 m page views, from 2.5 m users, from almost every country. In the year 2022, there were 647,000 page views, with ~40,000 users per month. 78% of the traffic came from organic searches, 17% from direct sources, and rest from referrals or social media. 88% of website visitors in 2022 were new, and 12% were returning. This highlights how important it is to strategically optimise a digital resource to build traffic from Google.

The website receives a range of external funding, from bodies such as the International Association of Sedimentologists, an Antarctic Science educational bursary, the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, the Geologists’ Association, and from university impact funds. These funds have enabled the website to remain advert free and non-profit, and most importantly, have allowed the part-time employment of a series of early career researchers. They have provided regular new content for the website and have received mentoring in writing for science communication.

 

Dos and Don’ts

When setting up a science blog or website, do:

• Be strategic and deliberate. Define short-term and long-term goals. Have a clear vision about the specific niche and the values of your new site.

• Recognise it requires a significant time investment. Setting one up alone is time consuming and can result in later abandonment. However, they can work really well for a group, such as a research group, lab or particular research project, with multiple writers.

• Identify an audience. Examples could include policy makers, politicians, journalists, school teachers (a different audience to school children or students), academics and researchers, local people (for specific local projects), interested lay people. A common pitfall is to just start writing, without researching or interacting with the audience first. Who are you writing for? What do they need? What is their level of education? Why are they reading your site?

• Google rewards regular original content. Be wary of reposting content from elsewhere, and find a strategy to maintain momentum. Plan out a content delivery strategy.

• Install a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plug in, which will help authors ensure that potential readers can find their page on Google. Basic principles of SEO include:

  • For each page, identify a unique keyword that readers will put into Google, and use this within the page title and URL, within subtitles with HTML H1, H2, H3 tags, and within the text and in figure captions.

  • Ensure the sitemap is submitted to Google.

  • Build internal and external links, especially from large sites highly ranked in Google (like universities).

• Remember that Content is King. Websites do not need to look particularly flashy or have a lot of exciting functionality. You can use an off-the-peg template (e.g. in WordPress) which looks sleek and professional. Invest time and energy in regular original content instead. However, do ensure that your site can be easily navigated to avoid frustrating users.

• Track and measure progress. Statistics on numbers visiting, visitor behaviour, most popular pages, traffic sources, can be easily tracked on Google Analytics.

 

When writing articles, do:

• Highlight the relevance to the audience. Why should they care, and how are they affected?

• Invert the Order. People generally skim read articles and want to know what the most important information is right away. Put the key details and take-home messages right at the top of the article and follow up with supporting details. The take home message should be highlighted and signposted with headings, to make it easy for the reader.

• Keep the language simple and straightforward. Avoid jargon and complex terms and be aware that some terms routinely used in research (e.g., bias, theory, positive trend, uncertainty, error) may have very different connotations to lay audiences. Use text that is easy to understand and tell a story with human interest.

• Keep individual entries short, ~700 words maximum. Readers quickly lose interest.

• Provide the background information, commentary and relevance to people that is often missing in news and in the media.

• Illustrate articles well.

• Keep sentences and paragraphs short, with white space between paragraphs. When reading on a screen, it is hard to read dense text. Use headings to break up text and to allow readers to skim read and find relevant sections quickly.

• Cite sources, which can ensure articles are seen as trustworthy and enables readers to check up on facts themselves.

 

Key recommendations

• Research and understand your audience. Understand who you are writing for, why you are writing for them, and what your audience needs and wants.

• Be strategic and deliberate, with a planned out content delivery strategy that can be sustained, ideally by a group of writers.

• Write short, accessible, interesting articles, with pictures, avoiding jargon and complex language.

• Delivering regular high quality content and original commentary will bring readers to your site. This is the single most important point to underline.

 

How to cite

Davies, B. (2023) Scientific websites and blogs. Communicating research beyond the academy. Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Guide. Available at: https://doi.org/10.55203/UVDX5964