Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug;45(4):539-554.
doi: 10.1177/10755470231162634. Epub 2023 Apr 4.

Science Communication as a Collective Intelligence Endeavor: A Manifesto and Examples for Implementation

Affiliations

Science Communication as a Collective Intelligence Endeavor: A Manifesto and Examples for Implementation

Dawn Holford et al. Sci Commun. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Effective science communication is challenging when scientific messages are informed by a continually updating evidence base and must often compete against misinformation. We argue that we need a new program of science communication as collective intelligence-a collaborative approach, supported by technology. This would have four key advantages over the typical model where scientists communicate as individuals: scientific messages would be informed by (a) a wider base of aggregated knowledge, (b) contributions from a diverse scientific community, (c) participatory input from stakeholders, and (d) better responsiveness to ongoing changes in the state of knowledge.

Keywords: collective intelligence; epistemic diversity; knowledge aggregation; knowledge updating; participatory input; science communication.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Bajak A, Howeve J. A study said Covid wasn’t that deadly. The right seized it; 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/coronavirus-research-misinfor... .
    1. Bartoš V, Bauer M, Cahlíková J, Chytilová J. Communicating doctors’ consensus persistently increases Covid-19 vaccinations. Nature. 2022;606(7914):542–549. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04805-y. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bedessem B, Gawrońska-Novak B, Lis P. Can citizen science increase trust in research? A case study of delineating polish metropolitan areas. Journal of Contemporary European Research. 2021;17:304–321. doi: 10.30950/JCER.V17I2.1185. - DOI
    1. Bonney R, Phillips TB, Ballard HL, Enck JW. Can citizen science enhance public understanding of science? Public Understanding of Science. 2015 October;25:2–16. doi: 10.1177/0963662515607406. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brodsky JE, Brooks PJ, Scimeca D, Galati P, Todorova R, Caulfield M. Associations between online instruction in lateral reading strategies and fact-checking Covid-19 news among college students. AERA Open. 2021;7 doi: 10.1177/23328584211038937. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources