‘There are many ways to communicate science’

Science communication has embraced increasingly diverse and creative methods of sharing knowledge and awareness of scientific topics with wider audiences. From accessible magazine articles to podcasts, poetry, imagery, social media posts, and even science-based short stories, we're moving beyond dry and heavy science communication. The Psychologist has always supported creative thinking in how contributors share their stories of psychology, and we look forward to exploring this even further with the return of the Voices In Psychology programme!

We hope to continue to encourage new voices to begin their science communication journey, whilst also helping existing science communicators to branch out and try new and diverse methods of sharing their voice. Over time, you'll see competitions and prompts, whether around content or communication methods. Keep an eye out for more on this later this year!

As your two new Associate Editors for the programme, Dr Ashleigh Johnstone and Dr Emma Palmer-Cooper, we share a love of science communication and public engagement. Here, we share our journeys, from starting out in science communication to volunteering with The Psychologist!

Ashleigh

As an A-level student studying psychology, I spent a lot of time reading the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, astounded at how its editor Dr Christian Jarrett was able to take complex research and make it accessible. I remember feeling excited about the idea of one day being able to communicate like that – to be able to explain all kinds of research to people. 

Imagine my disappointment when I got to university and realised that yes, there would be a lot of writing coming my way, but that it would be in the form of formal academic essays! Now, as a university lecturer, I can acknowledge the value of learning to write this way first, but I remember feeling disheartened that I couldn't add a bit of excitement to my writing in the early stages of my psychology journey.

Later on, as I moved on to my PhD, I started getting more interested in the idea of science communication again. I started getting involved with schemes like I'm a Scientist, Letters to a Pre-Scientist, and Soapbox Science, pushing myself out of my comfort zone to talk about the excitement of psychology with different groups of people. At this point, I knew I also wanted to try writing for wider audiences but I didn't really know where to start. 

I remember the Voices In Psychology programme at The Psychologist being launched in 2018 – the prompt for that year was 'Why do we need psychology? And what does psychology need?' Recently I've found a very rough plan for this at the bottom of my Google Drive. My plans were based around the idea of psychology needing to be accessible to the wider public – it's a shame I talked myself out of finishing it! I was still working on building my confidence in my writing and didn't really think anyone would be interested in what I had to say.

Over time though, I realised the only way to develop my confidence and my writing would be to try it and keep practicing. I knew that the public engagement schemes I'd enjoyed doing had helped me develop the skill of making complex psychology ideas more accessible, so now it was time to develop that in my writing too. I wrote two articles for The Conversation about my PhD research on martial arts training and cognition and was surprised to watch those articles spread and be picked up by external media outlets across the world. 

This gave me a boost and I started putting myself out there more, submitting pitches to outlets such as PsyPAG Quarterly, The Psychologist, and the Times Higher Education Campus. Occasionally there have been 'thanks but no thanks' responses, but on the whole, it's been a positive experience and I wish I'd started earlier! It's led to several exciting writing collaborations and I've met so many lovely people along the way.

When I saw The Psychologist looking for new Associate Editors for the Voices In Psychology programme I knew I had to apply. I want to encourage people to embrace the diverse nature of science communication, to try out new things!

Emma

I have always loved writing and originally wanted to study English or journalism, but A-level Psychology really drew me in. I realised I would rather spend my time reading and writing about the brain and behaviour!

Whilst developing my love of science, I also discovered science communication, and started a blog during my Postgraduate studies. I am dyslexic so I often experience a lack of confidence in my writing ability, and find proofreading frustrating when it highlights mistakes, but I have developed my writing skills (and patience for mistakes!) through practice. 

Blogging and writing on other social media platforms allowed me to flex those writing muscles outside of essays, particularly during my PhD when most of my writing was all progress reports and academic papers. It also led to involvement in bigger writing pieces like commentaries for Student Magazines and European Science Editing, and running blogs for various research groups [Early Career Hallucination Research (ECHR) and Southampton Psychosis and Bipolar Disorder Research & Innovation Group]. I was really happy when my first pitch to The Psychologist, promoting public engagement, was enthusiastically accepted. I have also since pitched articles and written for The Conversation.

Anyone who has met me knows I can talk, so chatting about science felt like quite a natural step for me. Taking part in interactive and spoken activities really clarified for me that there are many ways to communicate science, and using diverse approaches means you can reach more audiences.

Getting stuck in to all these different activities helped develop my voice on and off the page, and built my confidence and understanding that I have something to say, and people want to hear it. Over time I have been involved with organisations like Science Grrl and I'm a Scientist, to communicate science and psychology to a variety of audiences, in so many different and creative ways.

By far the most enjoyable activity I have taken part in was the Women of the World festival in London. I was representing scientists everywhere, so had to make my activity exciting and interactive. I decided to demonstrate the scientific process of testing a hypothesis by asking my 8-year-old audience if they thought people would complete a maze blindfolded faster if they had instructions given to them by a close friend or a different classmate. 

They made their predictions with some justifications, took part in the activity, and helped me look at the results. They loved it, and seeing the results and talking about why we found what we did made science and experimentation more tangible, with one boy telling me afterwards

'I thought science was boring, but that was fun!'.

I have also dabbled in podcasting, about other people's research and my own, and produced a podcast episode for Research Digest's 'Psych Crunch'. The process of writing and producing spoken content helped develop my original style of communication. The way you talk about research and science is very different to writing, and again highlights the different and creative ways that psychologists can engage with different publics in interesting and accessible ways.

I'm really excited to support other keen science communicators, and support them in finding their own style.

From The Psychologist's Editor, Jon Sutton

What is our Voices In Psychology programme? Well, you can find a round-up of previous efforts. Fundamentally it has been about identifying people at the start of a science communication journey, or those looking to find their voices in new ways, and then supporting them into our magazine and beyond.

A guiding principle for me is that any academic or practitioner seeking to get more involved in science communication has to start somewhere.

I started myself by entering The Psychologist student writer competition. And such people have come into The Psychologist team, and then on to all sorts of fascinating roles. Even helping out as a BPS member can be a springboard: Dr Madeleine Pownall, the previous Associate Editor for Voices In Psychology, started writing for us as a 17-year-old student and has gone on to all sorts of wonderful ventures.

So, if you're out there thinking you have a personal, practical and persuasive story of Psychology to tell, we can help you find creative and impactful ways of telling it!

Now we would love to hear your voices…

How has Covid changed our Psychology?

Address this question however you like, via whatever medium. Submit to [email protected] by 4 October 2024 and include a paragraph about yourself and your stance on science communication.