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SciComm Tips & Resources

Looking to expand your toolbox? Curious to test the waters of science communication for the first time?

We have bundled our favorite articles, tools, software and apps – most of which you already carry around in your pocket or could download for free. Our aim with resources we produce, and those we link to, is to empower ecologists to better communicate the stories of our science (including stories about the people doing the science) in creative and compelling ways.

Our Resources

  • Communicating Science – This section and collection in The Bulletin of the Ecological Society features best practices which can support and enhance members’ efforts in communication and engagement, the science of science communication, education and teaching, and related fields of scholarship. ESA members are active at the interface of ecology and science communication and engagement, and many of the publications in this section are by members of the Communication and Engagement Section.
  • MySciComm blog series – #MySciComm explores the personal and professional journeys of science communicators, including the joys, struggles, and helpful resources that surfaced along their way. #MySciComm also showcases the wide range of types of SciComm that people can do, from photography and illustration to serving as an institutional press officer, doing public engagement research, and so much more. SciComm is an emerging profession, and there are not only a lot of ways of doing SciComm, but a lot of ways of getting into it. Our #MySciComm series highlights some of the possibilities.
  • Newsletter – We send out a newsletter once or twice per month. The newsletter highlights Section news, comm & engagement resources available online, highlights from our blog, etc. Subscribe here.
  • Other blog series: Past blog series have included #MySciComm (described above), SciComm Lit Reviews, and a Resource of the Week series that ran for over a year. Follow the link to scroll back through the archives to find those and other resources.
  • SciComm workshops – We help ESA members move from talking about why communicating our science is important to improving how we actually do that. That’s why, each year, we host at least one workshop or session focused on professional development for science communication and engagement. See this year’s list here.
  • SciComm Resource Guide – Our instructors and contributors (to the #ESA2014 SciComm workshop) distilled their years of experience – successes and misadventures alike – into this guide book. Fully illustrated with photos and sketches done by our team, we hope this guide helps you enhance your SciComm, or at least inspires you to try doing a little SciComm.

#SciCommJob

If you’re looking for a job doing science communication (of any sort), check out the #SciCommJob hashtag on Twitter and Facebook. Increasingly, there are also entities coordinating job boards through groups, pages, and communities on social media platforms, Slack, and the like. This hashtag and these groups are also a handy way to highlight jobs you may be posting, if you’re hiring a science communicator.

ESA-wide C&E efforts

See this page for an overview of other areas of ESA where C&E efforts are taking place.