Communicating science in an age of on-screen reading: taking a page from journalism

Correspondence to Ashley Holub, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester Medical Center, Saunders Research Building, Rochester, NY 14642, USA; ashley_holub@urmc.rochester.edu OVERVIEW With the increasing move to publish manuscripts online, the science community needs to consider what effect this will have on their ability to communicate findings effectively to not only the science community but to the public as well. Last year, the National Institutes for Health released ‘A Checklist for Communicating Science and Health Research to the Public’, highlighting ways to improve scientific communication. 1 As scientists continue to write for academic journals, in either print or online forms, they should look to journalism for direction in navigating new communication frontiers, namely those that involve a screen to expand their public reach, while continuing to engage the scientific community through traditional means. Journalism continues to be effective in capturing public interest, allowing for a more expansive spread of information through its ability to adapt to and incorporate mixed mediums. 2 THE IMPACT OF ONLINE HEALTH COMMUNICATION, MISCOMMUNICATIONS It is estimated that 72% of internet users in the USA have used the internet to look up health information, with approximately 59% (or 35% of the total population when accounting for those who do not access to the internet) of them using the internet to look up a specific ailment. 3 Online health information is so commonly globally accessed that researchers across countries use keywords from search data to inform policies and healthcare decisions and identify emerging infections. 4 5 It is not hard to envision that by extension, users may have an interest in learning more about the conditions they search, including scientific progress in that area. Since they contain a depth of knowledge that may be complex, engaging readers can be challenging.