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Make your research communication RESPONSIVE

The image shows a cartoon image of a person in teal, with a black and white image of the globe behind them. Black arrows surround the person, originating from the globe and pointing towards the person's center as if being hugged. The image represents the person taking in and "responding" to the world around them.

Communication begins with self-awareness, awareness of others, and awareness of the environment in which you’re communicating. We communicate under constraints — of time, cultural or language differences, word count, societal expectations, auditory or visual distractions, disciplinary differences, and more. Being aware of these factors can help you respond to them — it allows you to ask whether the constraints are necessary or can be adjusted to support your communication. Virginia Tech’s Center for Communicating Science helps researchers learn to make their communication more responsive to their audiences and communication partners and environments.

Listening is a key element of responsiveness, and listening is a skill that all of us can improve. It includes using our ears, and it also includes tuning up our awareness of facial expression, body language, and all the other nonverbal modes of communication that humans use.

Try it yourself

Set yourself some “being responsive” goals. Here are a few ideas:

  • Get to the space in which you’re going to be giving a presentation or doing a science outreach activity well in advance. What do you feel, hear, smell, and see? What might distract your audience? How is the furniture set up? Will that support your goals? Become familiar with the space and welcome others.

  • Pay attention to your listening habits and abilities. Do you typically listen all the way to the end of someone’s sentence? Or are you planning your counterargument, thinking about lunch, worrying about your next grant proposal? Challenge yourself to listen without judgment or distraction. You can formulate your response later.

  • Ahead of an opportunity to communicate your research, do some research on whom you will be talking to. What are their needs and concerns? What is it about your work that will be useful or interesting to them? How much might they already know? What background information will they appreciate?

  • Turn off the sound for a favorite show. Pay close attention to the actors’ faces, movements, and body language. How much can you discern about the plot and action without hearing any of the words?

  • Who is impacted by your research? Do you know what those groups or individuals feel and think about the problems you’re addressing and the approaches you use? How might you be responsive to communities?

Learn more

Druckman, J. N., Ellenbogen, K. M., Scheufele, D. A., & Yanovitzky, I. (2025). An agenda for science communication research and practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(27), e2400932122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2400932122.

Reis, H.T. & Shaver, P. (1988). "Intimacy as an interpersonal process." In Duck, S. (Ed.), Handbook of Personal Relationships. Wiley.

Reis, H. T., Lee, K. Y., O'Keefe, S. D., & Clark, M. S. (2018). Perceived partner responsiveness promotes intellectual humility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 79, 21-33. 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.05.006

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2412389. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.