If you’ve been following easternblot.net for more than a few years, you may have noticed that this site is all over the place. The science blog used to be on a separate site, the archives include old posts from Expression Patterns (my old Nature Network blog), and some of it seems to be aimed at scientists while other content is clearly for everyone. The problem with easternblot.net is that I never defined a proper audience. It was just a collection of things that I wrote.
That is going to change, in a few different ways. First of all, easternblot.net is now open to guest contributors, so it not longer just has one author. The first guest post, by Lorraine Renee Skuta, went up earlier this month. If you might be interested in writing for easternblot.net, check the guidelines for guest bloggers and get in touch if you have an idea for a post.
The other big change is that there will be much fewer posts aimed at scientists on this site. A lot of the posts currently in the science communication category are written for researchers. How to run a science unconference, how to use social media as a scientist, the importance of finding your own science communication style, etc. These posts will stay on the site for now, but from 2019 that type of content will appear (in a much more succinct format) on a brand new website!
Share Your Sci is aimed at researchers who are curious about sharing their work with new audiences, but don’t have time to delve deep into the ins and outs of the the field of science communication. The website will launch next month, and the first newsletter will go out in about four weeks from now. Every month, the Share Your Sci newsletter includes short tips and activities that give researchers new ideas on how to share their research with others. That can include advice on giving public talks, but also best practices for making their research available and accessible online.
A sneak preview of the Share Your Sci website
The Share Your Sci website will be regularly updated with new articles and tips, and also includes lists of organisations and tools that allow scientists to further increase their science communication skills. It’s more than a website, though: Through Share Your Sci I will also be providing workshops and training for researchers and institutes.
To mark the launch of Share Your Sci, I’m running a webinar on January 21. The topic should be interesting for everyone who has ever made slides for a science talk or written a science blog post: Images. I’ll go over the best practices about using others’ images, where and how to find free science images, and how to make your slidedeck sharing-friendly. The webinar is free, but to join you have to register on eventbrite so that I can send you the login details for the conference call ahead of time. These will not be posted anywhere online, but only sent out to registered participants.
Share Your Sci will also be the new virtual home of the From Science to SciComm workbook. In the next few months I’ll update the workbook to the new 2019 edition. If you previously downloaded the workbook, you’ll receive a free download code for the new edition once it’s done.
If you’re a researcher, or otherwise interested in science communication tips, here’s how to keep up with the Share Your Sci launch over the next few weeks:
- Register for the upcoming (free) webinar on best practices for using images in slides and blog posts.
Meanwhile, if you’re much more interested in the science/art/culture content on easternblot.net, don’t forget that you can also subscribe to the monthly picks newsletter and the quarterly Musicians & Scientists newsletter. And if you want to write for easternblot, check out the guidelines and get in touch.