Improving Scientific Communication and Publication Output in a Multidisciplinary Laboratory: Changing Culture Through Staff Development Workshops
Communication plays a fundamental role in science and engineering disciplines. However, many higher education programs provide little, if any, technical communication coursework. Without strong communication skills scientists and engineers have less opportunity to publish, obtain competitive research funds, or grow their careers. This article describes the role of scientific communication training as an innovative staff development program in a learning-intensive workplace – a national scientific research and development laboratory. The findings show that involvement in the workshop has increased overall participating staff annual publications by an average of 61 percent compared to their pre-workshop publishing performance as well as confidence level in their ability to write and publish peer-reviewed literature. Secondary benefits include improved information literacy skills and the development of informal communities of practice. This work provides insight into adult education in the workplace.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1214901
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-108802
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC 2015), July 12-15, 2015, Limerick, Ireland, 1-7
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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