Communicating with journalists

Two useful pieces, worth reading even if you are neither a scientist nor a science journalist.

Ed Yong writes about what he is looking for when he asks scientists for comments on a research paper.

Note that a lot of this boils down to you telling me something interesting that I couldn’t have predicted. That’s why, when people ask me, “Do you have any specific questions?” the answer is often, “No.” What you have to tell me—what springs into your head—is probably going to be far more interesting that anything I’m expecting you to tell me. Hence, any questions I have will be really broad like, “What does this mean?” or “Do you buy it?” or “How does this fit with other stuff?” or “Science me up, nerd.”

Thomas Hayden describes how he reads scientific articles as a journalist

Just after the authors note “more research is needed,” you’ll usually find the one moment of speculation allowed in most papers. That’s where scientists get to suggest not just what their study contributes to the research enterprise, but what deeper implications it might have, or even how it might be applied. This is as close as the paper will come to answering the question, “So what? Why does any of this even matter?” [Note to science reporters: your job is to push the researchers to tell you more about this. Their job is to resist.]