Scientific communication: Five themes from social science research.

Abstract

The themes are: acts of scientific communication constitute a system; several channels may act synergistically to bring about the effective transmission of a message; informal and unplanned communication plays a crucial role in the science information system; scientists constitute publics; science information systems serve multiple functions. The themes enumerated above have implications for science information policy, but the translation of these implications into concrete steps requires that the themes be specified through a considerable amount of empirical research.