Research Symposium Chairs:
Graham Dixon, Ohio State University
Jay Hmielowski, University of Florida

The BEA Research Committee invites submission of original, non-published research papers to be considered for the BEA 2025 Research Symposium held during the BEA annual conference April 5-8, 2025, in Las Vegas.

As the world suffers from an information overload or infoxication, understanding what the public knows about science, technology, and risk becomes more important. Science communication is often complicated and overwhelming when the public tries to research a topic or an issue to learn and form opinions. With the growth of AI, misinformation/disinformation, it is more important to understand how to better communicate science to the public across a variety of platforms.

The symposium welcomes qualitative and quantitative research from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives across the humanities and social sciences. Potential contributions could focus on the topics below, but are not limited to:

• Science communication and public opinion
• Science communication and risk
• Science communication in climate change
• Science communication and GMOs
• Science communication and nanotechnology
• Science communication and biotechnology
• Science communication and weather
• Science communication and government
• Science communication campaigns
• Science communication and distrust
• Science communication and misinformation/disinformation
• Scientists as expert sources
• Science communication in AI

Submissions to this research symposium should be full research papers, which typically run between 5,000-7,000 words (including references, tables, and appendices). APA 7th edition should be used. Submissions will be peer-reviewed and if accepted, presented at the 2025 BEA Research Symposium. In addition, papers may be considered for inclusion in Routledge’s Electronic Media Research Book Series tied to the symposium. The deadline for paper submissions is December 16, 2024.

The Research Symposium paper competition is BLINDLY REVIEWED. Judges need to blindly review your papers. Authors will be notified about decisions by January 30, 2025.