A while ago I decided to write short outreach articles for our Blog as a great platform to ensure that my articles find their way to a diverse audience. It’s a small act that allows me to do my part as an educator, to share what I have learnt over the years and also my current projects.
I’m a scientist and former academic, trained to write peer-reviewed research articles. Peer reviewed articles can take years to create starting from the original research to publication. Unfortunately, the majority of peer-reviewed articles only reach a small fraction of the professional field (including the peer reviewers). I value the diverse professions within agriculture and want to make sure the knowledge reaches producers as well as scientists. This gap between research and grower is what lead me to create outreach blog articles here.
Unfortunately, the majority of peer-reviewed articles only reach a small fraction of the professional field.
Recently I have recognized that there are a few readers who are approaching my articles as if they were peer-reviewed highly scientific manuscripts. Typically, their comments are noting specific topics that require much more depth and description than what is intended by an outreach article. Note that the articles I publish are intended to reach a broad range of readership. Diving into the highly scientific jargon and specific research details excludes the very people I wish to reach.
Outreach articles are usually short and use a jargon-free language that makes them simple and easy to follow. Added tip: if you have trouble understanding an outreach article then it is not what it says it is, because it fails to be inclusive.
Last point about outreach articles, specifically those targeting the agricultural community, “we are not supposed to encourage people to try/use a method/tool that has just been developed”, even if we are 100% sure that it works! As a scientist, I am always eager to share the result of my research with everybody. The methods that I recommend to growers, however, have existed in the literature for some time and had their nuts and bolts inspected.
Finally, I do my best to keep my outreach articles "short" and "simple". If you came across one of my articles on the Internet and liked it, please feel free to read my other articles as well to have the whole picture.