There’s a few reasons why scientists may be discouraged from science communication. Here, I’m hoping to break down some of those barriers, and introduce channels and platforms where scientists can practise. First, here are some of the reasons stopping more scientists from practising science communication, as well as my rebuttals.
As postdocs with a combined 20 years of experience in neuroscience research, we’ve attended hundreds of talks and delivered dozens of presentations. We’ve realized it is imperative to perform your best every time you present — whether at a weekly meeting or at a job interview.
Your preparation and organization will help the audience understand your main points, and this professionalism will boost your reputation, which could lead to further opportunities. Ultimately, a presentation is one of the ways of influencing how others perceive your science and your competence. Here, we’ve put together some ideas for creating polished presentations.
Naturejobs journalism competition winner Catherine Carnovale explores this distinction.
Guest contributor David Rubenson
The slide presentation has become the most ubiquitous form of scientific communication and it is causing havoc. Scientists spend enormous amounts of time preparing presentations, travelling to conferences to deliver them, and listening to them almost every day. But most scientists simply aren’t very good at them – we should change that.
David Rubenson
I previously argued that this problem underlies a significant communication crisis in research. As I’ve learnt as a scientific presentation coach at Stanford, there’s a broad understanding of this problem, but insufficient incentive for the time-intensive training many scientists need. Still, following simple lists of “dos” and “don’ts” is a great way to improve presentation skills.
In that spirit, and to supplement an earlier list of eight positive suggestions, here’s a David Letterman-like countdown of the 10 biggest pitfalls in creating and delivering a scientific presentation:
