by

Nieske Vergunst

Hello world, or: an introduction to this open research notebook

Welcome, reader! In this open research notebook, I’ll be sharing my experiences and progress of my research on public engagement. In essence, I’m working on a cost-benefit analysis of public engagement activities across different target groups. You’ll get a first-hand look into my research notes and my preliminary results before I craft them into journal papers, and I’ve opened the comment section for your thoughts on my plans and ideas.

Open-notebook science

What is this open research notebook, and why am I keeping it in the first place? First of all, there are many people that I’d like to keep posted on my research, so allowing them to subscribe to this blog* seems a practical way to do that. And I don’t want to do this alone: by opening the comment section, I hope this open research notebook will be a two-way street, and in that sense, an example of public engagement in itself as well (so meta!).

In a broader sense, keeping my notes open fits well with the idea of open science, and there’s even a specific practice called open-notebook science. These open notebooks are usually lab journals, but I don’t mind thinking out of the box. A caveat: I’m not only writing for academics, so while the contents of this notebook are serious, the tone may be more informal than you’re used to.

I also have an ulterior motive with this open research notebook, that I’ll share with you at the end of this entry. (I’m pretty sure the whole idea of ulterior motives is that you should keep them secret, but where’s the fun in that?)

Nice to meet you

Before we continue, let’s get to know each other a bit better. After my Master’s (2006) and PhD (2011) in artificial intelligence, I briefly branched out into other fields before landing in science communications at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Science in 2015.

Since March 2022, my work time is split between research and practice: in addition to my work as a science communicator, I’m spending two days a week as a postdoc researcher at the PESC group, led by Prof. Erik van Sebille. So far, it’s a wonderful and slightly chaotic combination that I would absolutely recommend to be implemented elsewhere as well. My research is partially funded by UU’s Centre for Science and Culture, and I’m very happy to have direct access to their knowledge and experience in organising PE activities.

How about you? If I’m guessing, there’s a fair chance that you’re an academic or a practitioner in science communications or public engagement, or perhaps you’re dealing with one of these themes from a policy or management angle. But you may just as well be a researcher in another field, or interested in public engagement from another perspective. Please share in the comments what your relationship with public engagement is – it’s very useful for me to know who my readers are!

Secret agenda

To finish this first entry, it’s time to reveal my secret agenda: by sharing my insights and experiences, I hope to get more people enthusiastic about doing public engagement. After all, with public engagement, science can achieve “more transparency and societal impact […] because on the one hand, it is a way to share research and results with societal partners and citizens, and on the other hand, a way to ensure that academics are addressing questions that matter to society” (Boon et al, 2022).

As a disclaimer, that doesn’t mean I’ll paint a rosier picture of my experiences. I will be completely honest about my adventures in public engagement, and you’ll surely be reading about my struggles and failures as well (who knows, I might be able to gather enough of those to submit a paper to the Journal of Trial & Error).

So by taking you along for the ride and showing you some behind the scenes insights, I hope you might want to dip your toes into public engagement waters as well.

The first final words

Next up, you’ll hear more about my research plans. But now, as a closing for my first open research notebook entry, I’d like to hear more from you. I’m open for any questions, comments and insights, and I’m curious to hear what you’d like to see in future notebook entries and what other questions you have for me.

* As for subscribing to this blog: if you’re interested in following along, send me a brief e-mail and I’ll let you know whenever I publish a new blog entry.