{"id":37492,"date":"2020-03-06T17:22:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T11:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492"},"modified":"2025-08-28T17:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:59:16","slug":"the-coronavirus-has-sparked-a-mini-revolution-of-sorts-in-the-need-for-science-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/the-coronavirus-has-sparked-a-mini-revolution-of-sorts-in-the-need-for-science-communication","title":{"rendered":"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science communication is ripe for a paradigm change, and newer content formats might have a role to play. This probably hasn\u2019t been more evident than now given the situation around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).<\/p>\n

As I type this sentence, there are a total of\u00a095,411 confirmed coronavirus cases*\u00a0<\/strong>worldwide. Mainland China has detected 80,409 cases, half of whom have already recovered. South Korea (5,766), Italy (3,089), and Iran (2,922) are the new epicentres with the maximum number of cases outside China. And how, you may ask, do I know about these exact figures at a glance? This is courtesy of the\u00a0Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases dashboard<\/a>\u00a0hosted by Johns Hopkins CSSE.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
*Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases Dashboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This\u00a0amazing interactive infographic<\/a>\u00a0gives a bird\u2019s eye view of the global situation around the coronavirus epidemic\u00a0(<\/em>the World Health Organization just stopped short<\/em><\/a>\u00a0of terming it a pandemic)<\/em>. There are several other such dashboards, but this one caught my eye immediately because of its non-technical nature and the fact that a layman can immediately start relating to the situation.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
How does Coronavirus spread? (PDF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The above PDF handout on coronavirus I\u2019d found<\/a>\u00a0is a very good example of how research converted into plain and easy-to-understand formats can be very helpful to the common man on the ground.<\/p>\n

Then,\u00a0this simple graphic by Sara Chodosh<\/a>\u00a0posted on Popular Science shows how measles, smallpox, rubella, mumps, and SARS are much more contagious than coronavirus (COVID-19)! Now that\u2019s the power of an infographic! (It should be noted that this doesn\u2019t imply that measles is more fatal; it\u2019s just that the world has dealt with diseases that are far more contagious, and the real challenge with the coronavirus is finding the right treatment and cure.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Graphic by Sara Chodosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Necessity of Reliable Data Flow<\/h4>\n

What needs to be noted here is that dashboards such as the one hosted by John Hopkins are possible only if reliable data flows in\u00a0unhindered<\/em>. Authorities across the world have been providing access to local data on the epidemic on a regular basis. In addition, the world\u2019s top scholarly publishers such as\u00a0Elsevier<\/a>,\u00a0Springer Nature<\/a>,\u00a0Wiley<\/a>,\u00a0Taylor & Francis<\/a>, and\u00a0SAGE Publishing<\/a>\u00a0have all announced immediate open access publishing of data and findings on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0has gone ahead and launched\u00a0Outbreak Science Rapid PREreview<\/a>\u2014an open-source platform for rapid review of preprints related to emerging outbreaks\u2014with support from the London-based charity Wellcome. All these efforts will go a long way in the effective treatment of patients and in helping the entire world emerge out of this crisis.<\/p>\n

On a related note, several leading preprint servers such as\u00a0bioRxiv<\/a>,\u00a0medRxiv<\/a>, and\u00a0ChemRxiv<\/a>\u00a0too have seen a surge in the number of preprint submissions related to the novel coronavirus. But given that preprints are not peer-reviewed, some of the material lacks scientific rigour, and some has already been exposed as flawed, or plain wrong, and has been withdrawn, writes Kate Kelland from Reuters as she discusses\u00a0the risks of swiftly spreading coronavirus research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Kristen Sadler, former research director at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, is of the opinion that if right quality controls are in place,\u00a0preprints have the potential to speed up the dissemination of research.<\/a><\/p>\n

Furthermore, several language editing companies have gone ahead to offer free editing services to all manuscripts related to the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n

The free availability of reliable research data has helped various authorities and doctors battling the situation to present the public with easy-to-understand handouts for dispelling notions and preventing the outbreak from further deteriorating.<\/p>\n

The Real-life Impact of Science Communication<\/h4>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people have been able to make swift decisions around their travel plans and decision-makers at all levels have been able to respond with urgency AND clarity.\u00a0Conferences have been cancelled<\/a>\u00a0at the last minute, and the\u00a0entire conference circuit has taken a beating<\/a>. Imagine the disaster if reliable data wasn\u2019t presented in easily consumable formats, and these huge conferences had continued on schedule.<\/p>\n

What can be the real-life impact if science communication available in the right format is actioned on in the appropriate manner? Check out this Op-ed on\u00a0Why Vietnam has been the world\u2019s number 1 country in dealing with coronavirus<\/a>. Which is why I feel that science communication is ripe for a paradigm change, and newer content formats will have a role to play! More power to science communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science communication is ripe for a paradigm change, and newer content formats might have a role to play. This probably hasn\u2019t been more evident than now given the situation around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As I type this sentence, there are a total of\u00a095,411 confirmed coronavirus cases*\u00a0worldwide. Mainland China has detected 80,409 cases, half of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15145,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5891],"tags":[],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-37492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication | Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Science communication is ripe for a paradigm change, and newer content formats might have a role to play. This probably hasn\u2019t been more evident than now given the situation around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As I type this sentence, there are a total of\u00a095,411 confirmed coronavirus cases*\u00a0worldwide. Mainland China has detected 80,409 cases, half of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-06T11:52:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-28T11:59:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Blog-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"639\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"412\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Minhaj Rais\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Minhaj Rais\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Minhaj Rais\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc664de0903892deaeaa82a71629ad34\"},\"headline\":\"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-06T11:52:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-28T11:59:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\"},\"wordCount\":752,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Research stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\",\"name\":\"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication | Editage Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-06T11:52:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-28T11:59:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"width\":656,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Editage Insights\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Editage\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc664de0903892deaeaa82a71629ad34\",\"name\":\"Minhaj Rais\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9adbe1b2103e5529b6e4a7380a8b7dd0c8016f8fe4486eff1f72add0e9a3e45?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9adbe1b2103e5529b6e4a7380a8b7dd0c8016f8fe4486eff1f72add0e9a3e45?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Minhaj Rais\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/dr-rais\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication | Editage Insights","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication | Editage Insights","og_description":"Science communication is ripe for a paradigm change, and newer content formats might have a role to play. This probably hasn\u2019t been more evident than now given the situation around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As I type this sentence, there are a total of\u00a095,411 confirmed coronavirus cases*\u00a0worldwide. Mainland China has detected 80,409 cases, half of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2020-03-06T11:52:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-28T11:59:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":639,"height":412,"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Blog-Image.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Minhaj Rais","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Minhaj Rais","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492"},"author":{"name":"Minhaj Rais","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc664de0903892deaeaa82a71629ad34"},"headline":"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication","datePublished":"2020-03-06T11:52:39+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-28T11:59:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492"},"wordCount":752,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","articleSection":["Research stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492","name":"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication | Editage Insights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","datePublished":"2020-03-06T11:52:39+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-28T11:59:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","width":656,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37492#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The coronavirus has sparked a mini revolution of sorts in the need for Science Communication"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","name":"Editage Insights","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization","name":"Editage Insights","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":324,"caption":"Editage Insights"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","https:\/\/x.com\/Editage"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc664de0903892deaeaa82a71629ad34","name":"Minhaj Rais","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9adbe1b2103e5529b6e4a7380a8b7dd0c8016f8fe4486eff1f72add0e9a3e45?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9adbe1b2103e5529b6e4a7380a8b7dd0c8016f8fe4486eff1f72add0e9a3e45?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Minhaj Rais"},"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/dr-rais"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37492"},{"taxonomy":"new_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_categories?post=37492"},{"taxonomy":"new_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_tags?post=37492"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=37492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}