Digital public engagement in excellent Spanish Science: Analysis of research projects funded by European Research Council

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2019.ene.06

Keywords:

Science communication, Public communication in science, Participation, Social networks, Social media, Internet, Responsible research and innovation, RRI, Research projects, Delphi method.

Abstract

How much the excellent science uses web 2.0 tools to encourage public engagement in the research process is analyzed. Understanding participation, from the perspective of responsible research and innovation, not only as the communication of scientific results, but also the involvement of society in scientific development. For the analysis, an ad-hoc questionnaire developed using the Delphi method was designed and validated. The study sample is constituted by Spanish projects financed by the European Research Council in 2015. Among the results obtained, the reduced use of digital applications stands out. In fact, only 23.9% of projects have a website and less than 15% have a social profile. Regarding participation mechanisms, a limited 3% uses web 2.0 to involve citizens. With reference to the characteristics of the communication, it can be concluded that it is unidirectional from the institution responsible for the project to society -97% of the cases- and presents a high level of specialization -in more than 80% of the cases a technical language is used and the messages posted are aimed solely at experts-.

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Author Biographies

Lourdes López-Pérez, Universidad de Granada

 

Lourdes López es Doctora Internacional en Ciencias Sociales y Master en Comunicación e Información Cientí­fica por la Universidad de Granada y está Licenciada en Ciencias de la Comunicación por la Universidad de Málaga. Ha desarrollado toda su carrera profesional en el ámbito de la comunicación pública de la ciencia y forma parte del grupo de investigación "˜Acceso y evaluación de la información cientí­fica´ de la Universidad de Granada. Es autora de más de una decena de artí­culos en revistas de alto impacto y de capí­tulos de libros en editoriales de prestigio como De Gruyter o MacGraw Hill.

Marí­a-Dolores Olvera-Lobo, Universidad de Granada

Marí­a Dolores Olvera-Lobo es Doctora en Documentación y Catedrática del Departamento de Información y Comunicación de la Universidad de Granada. Es miembro del Grupo Scimago, Unidad Asociada del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientí­ficas (Madrid) y directora del grupo de investigación "˜Acceso y evaluación de la información cientí­fica´ de la Universidad de Granada. Además, es autora y/o coautora de libros, capí­tulos y de decenas de artí­culos publicados en revistas especializadas nacionales e internacionales, la inmensa mayorí­a de los cuales cuentan con un í­ndice de calidad constatable (JCR, SJR, RESH). 

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Published

2019-01-08

How to Cite

López-Pérez, L., & Olvera-Lobo, M.-D. (2019). Digital public engagement in excellent Spanish Science: Analysis of research projects funded by European Research Council. Profesional De La información, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2019.ene.06

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 1 (2019): Número multidisciplinar de Información y Comunicación

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Research articles

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