Once a scientist figures out the details for their experiments and runs them, what exactly happens next? How exactly are scientific findings communicated between other scientists? Do scientists have a blog that they post their results? Well, in a way, that’s exactly what happens. In this edition to “What is science?”, we’ll be exploring scientific journals and the role they play in the communication of scientific results.
Scientists publish their findings into academic journals. Think of it as a magazine, except for scientists. A scientists write up what’s known as a journal article, then submits it into one of the many thousands of scientific journals. However, that’s not the end of it. One an article is submitted, the journal then reviews the article to ensure it meets the standards; that there is no plagiarism, forging of data or that it actually advances scientific knowledge. This process is known as peer-review. Once it passes this stage, the article is then published. Once this happens, scientists from around the world are able to read the journal article and potentially reference it in their own scientific studies.
While the structure of journal articles may differ from journal to journal, they all tend to follow the same pattern. The first thing you see in an article is what’s known as an abstract. This is essentially a summary of the entire article such as the scientific problem that is being addressed, the methods, results and a discussion of the significance of the results. Following this is the introduction, which provides context as to why this topic is being researched. The introduction will tell the reader what the problem is; what is it we don’t know that we’d like to know? Once the reader understands this, the introduction will end off by stating what is being done to address the problem. Naturally, the methods section comes next, which is a summary of the exact steps the scientist took to address this problem. The methods section should be accurate enough that another scientist can replicate it and achieve the same results. Next, the scientists will follow this by stating what the results of the experiment are. This is essentially a description and typically, the writer must not state their own opinions on their results, such as what their significance are. This is allows the reader to form an unbiased opinion on the results and and can judge for themselves what the significance is. The last section is the discussion, which is where the writer will discuss the significance of the results and they may compare and contrast their experiment to other publications
So what are some of these journals I’ve been talking about? Well, like I mentioned previously there are likely to be thousands of them. However, only a handful of journals dominate in the scientific community. One of them is Nature, which was founded in 1869 and has published many of the most revolutionary scientific discoveries such as the structure of DNA.1 However, the process of scientific publications is far from perfect and there are many problems associated with it. Firstly, only 28% of articles are open-access, meaning that the remaining articles are behind a paywall.2 This means that, unless you’re a student at a university, members of the public have to pay money to view a scientific article. A single article can cost around $30 USD, which can quickly increase to hundreds of dollars if multiple articles are read. The irony of this is that many articles have been published about the rise of scientific misinformation (figure 1). Unfortunately, it seems that only the rich members of the public are allowed to be scientifically informed.
Figure 1. An example of the conundrum between the lack of public understanding of science and their inability to freely access journal articles
Another problem is that the public are generally unaware of how science is published. You can’t simply go to a news agency and find journals in there like you do the latest fashion magazine. While national geographic often publish magazines on scientific advancement, they tend to publish the basics and the general public will therefore miss the bulk of information as compared to what’s published in a journal.
Why am I telling all of you this? Well, if more members of the public were aware of how scientific information is communicated, they can possibly invoke positive changes. The most important thing to start with is an increase in demand on open-access journal articles. This may pressure Journals to start allowing more access to new science and may help close the gap between the public’s and scientists understanding on what goes on in science. Remember, it is your tax money that funds the majority of scientific research. If more members of the public were both aware of and able to access scientific journals for free, this may be the best chance in creating a scientific literate society.
References
1. Ferry G. The structure of DNA. Nature. 2019 Nov;575(7781):35–6.
2. Day S, Rennie S, Luo D, Tucker JD. Open to the public: paywalls and the public rationale for open access medical research publishing. Res Involv Engagem. 2020 Feb 28;6:8.
