Article
ID: CBB001420102

Measuring Mumbo Jumbo: A Preliminary Quantification of the Use of Jargon in Science Communication (2014)

unapi
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations Communication of scientific ideas Public understanding of science Scientific literature Audiences Communication within scientific contexts 21st century

Leaders of the scientific community encourage scientists to learn effective science communication, including honing the skill to discuss science with little professional jargon. However, avoiding jargon is not trivial for scientists for several reasons, and this demands special attention in teaching and evaluation. Despite this, no standard measurement for the use of scientific jargon in speech has been developed to date. Here a standard yardstick for the use of scientific jargon in spoken texts, using a computational linguistics approach, is proposed. Analyzed transcripts included academic speech, scientific TEDTalks, and communication about the discovery of a Higgs-like boson at CERN. Findings suggest that scientists use less jargon in communication with a general audience than in communication with peers, but not always less obscure jargon. These findings may lay the groundwork for evaluating the use of jargon.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420102/

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Authors & Contributors
Kahan, Dan
Gantet, Claire
Piel, Helen
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall
Scheufele, Dietram A.
Wittkower, D. E.
Journals
Public Understanding of Science
VIET: Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki
Social Science History
Science as Culture
Research in Philosophy and Technology
Mémoires de la Classe des sciences. Académie Royale de Belgique
Publishers
Navakarnataka Publications Pvt Ltd
U. of Minnesota Press
Uitgeverij Vantilt
Oxford University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
Concepts
Communication of scientific ideas
Communication within scientific contexts
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Public understanding of science
Scientific literature
Audiences
People
Smith, John Maynard
Osorio Tafall, Bibiano F.
Miller, Gerard Fridrikh
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
Gore, Albert
Callendar, Guy Stewart
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
18th century
17th century
Places
Netherlands
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
United States
Spain
Russia
Portugal
Institutions
Madras Observatory
Human Genome Project
American Institute of Physics
Academia Brasileira de Ciencias
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