Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
A joint Guest Edited Collection from Humanities & Social Sciences Communications and Scientific Reports.
Engaging non-professionals in scientific research not only enables data collection and processing on a scale that would otherwise be impossible; it also fosters public awareness of and interest in science. In some cases, it can even empower communities to take ownership of the question or problem that the research addresses, and to influence the solutions. In recent decades, the widespread adoption of smartphones has both facilitated community-based research and allowed for its integration with artificial intelligence techniques. Whether monitoring biodiversity, building new RNA and protein structures online, or tracking stressors in urban environments, community scientists are invaluable collaborators in natural, medical, and social science fields from astronomy to zoology.
To honour these contributions to scientific progress and encourage further public involvement in research, Humanities & Social Sciences Communications and Scientific Reports are opening a joint call for submissions related to community science. We welcome submissions of primary research in any area of the humanities, behavioural and social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, or engineering that involves data collection and/or processing by members of the public. We also welcome other article types, such as Reviews and Comments, which will be considered for publication only in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. Authors should refer to the aims and scope of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications and Scientific Reports to determine the most appropriate journal for their manuscript.
Social media has expanded the possibilities for citizens around the world to share knowledge and interact about scientific advancements, facilitating to raise public awareness of and interest in science. Amidst this context, scientists in all disciplines are intensifying the use of social media as a data source to capture what citizens express about their achievements, beyond dissemination purposes. Content analysis is the generalised method used by researchers to explore the interactions of citizens in social media about science. In this commentary paper, we explore the social media communicative observations as an emerging technique in the social media analytics to include the communicative dimension of science in the analysis of interactions between scientists and citizens. The implications to empower dialogically the social media communities interested in science are shared.