The journalist David Dickson reflects on how online culture is changing science communication

Researchers have a responsibility to ensure that the general public is made aware of the results of their research. This was the premise of a talk the science journalist David Dickson gave to an audience of some 50 people at the Centro Esther Koplowitz; his central message was that "the scientific community should commit to communication as an integral part of a researcher's professional role".    

The editor of SciDev.Net explained how science communication has been affected by new technologies. According to Dickson, the biggest revolution has occurred within the scientific community itself in the form of the Open Access Movement, which promotes the concept of free and open access and distribution of scientific information.  By contrast, the community has been slower to adopt the new forms of communication made available by the Internet, such as multimedia content and social networks, and the web presence of many scientific journals is still limited to the online reproduction of the traditional content designed for print publication.   

David Dickson has been a science journalist for more than 40 years. In 2011, he left his job as news editor of Nature to set up the SciDev.Net  website and the Science and Development Network, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing reliable information about science and technology for the developing world. He recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Association of British Science Writers.