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Early PLOS BLOGS survey results offer first of many scicomm insights to come

Victoria Costello Publishing

As the first ever PLOS BLOGS Reader Survey is now closed, PLOS wants to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and preferences as science readers and communicators.

As explained in our announcement post, in addition to hearing what content you find most (and least) valuable as readers of the PLOS BLOGS Network, with this survey PLOS also wants to discover more about YOU as individual readers. Hearing about your general science communication habits and preferences will help us reach you more efficiently and provide the information you most value. Your thoughts on the most useful types of online venues and social media networks for sharing scientific information will help us provide features and functionalities on PLOS sites that best serve your needs. Lastly, your answers will also be added to a larger body of science communication research being conducted by our survey consultant, Dr. Paige Brown Jarreau.

sidebar survey banner

What’s Next?

Over the next 3-4 weeks, Dr. Jarreau will scrub and analyze all the data acquired from this survey. Results will then be made available in two forms: first, as an informal blog post offering survey highlights, to be posted in the PLOS Scicomm blog. Then, later in the year, a more detailed and extensive analysis will be released as a formal research article to be authored by Dr. Jarreau — with the attendant raw data made available for all to see and share.

If, while taking the survey, you entered your email for a chance to win a PLOS t-shirt, and you are one of the 100 to be randomly selected as a winner, you will receive an email requesting your t-shirt size and mailing address — within the next 3 weeks.

 Sneak Peak of Survey Results

As a preview of what’s to come, we can share the following fundamental demographic and scicomm user trends that showed up early in the survey and have remained pretty much the same since.

Who reads PLOS BLOGS? (Respondents selected all that apply)

  • Researchers 70%
    • 55% early career; 42% Mid to late career
    • 67% have published research in peer reviewed journal(s)
  • Grad students 19%
  • Science teachers 15%
  • Clinicians/health providers 11%
  • Patients 6%
  • Citizen Scientists 16%
  • Science writers 14%

In addition, 89% of these PLOS BLOGS readers tell us they have a college degree in science, while 45% have a PhD in their fields.

Top 3 reasons for reading PLOS BLOGS:

  1. Keep up with current scientific research
  2. Stimulate my curiosity
  3. For expert opinions on scientific issues

How often they post their own scientific content online? 40% either daily or 2-3 times a week

How many science blogs read regularly?

  • 1 – 2    47%
  • 3 – 5    25%

These highlights barely scratch the surface of the rich data we’ve got on hand, including hundreds of text amplifications offered by our generous respondents. All responses will be analyzed and discussed in depth in the blog post and formal article mentioned above.

And, if you want to hear survey results and receive other PLOS news we invite you to sign up for EMAIL Updates.

Thanks again to all who contributed by taking the survey and spreading the word!

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