Why Scientists Must Learn to Communicate With the Public

"The way the scientific publishing system is currently designed, it is impossible to get hold of peer-reviewed and published work from a well-known journal without paying a substantial sum of money for a subscription. Unless one has access to a university or an allied subscription (or an open-access journal), it is not possible for the public to read any of the articles published in for-profit, closed-access scientific journals. Thus, even though a scientist can claim that she has done her ‘communication duty’ by publishing her work in a scientific journal, the net result is that the public is still in the dark about her work, simply due to a lack of access. Therefore, the onus is on the scientists to make sure that their work actually reaches the public...."