Diffusion is a blog about science communication in all its theoretical and practical aspects. It is not about communicating science, and will not set out to be New Scientist. Though hosted at the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU, Diffusion is not about CPAS per se.

All posts must be in the author’s real name. Commenters will be allowed to comment under pseudonyms, but real names will be encouraged. All authors / commenters will be encouraged to add a personal photo.

Submissions are welcome from anyone – science communication researchers, practitioners, scientists and other interested parties. Topics for publication are up for negotiation, so long as it fits within the broad remit of science communication. Think broadly – we are open to experimentation and new thinking, so if you have an idea that you’re not sure about, ask! Submit ideas / posts to diffusion.blog@anu.edu.au Editors will choose whether to post the article at their own discretion; peer reviewers may be used.

Writing should be clear, intelligent and clean. A bit of personality would be nice. We will accept posts of various lengths (~100, ~300, ~600, or up to 2000 words – however, lengths over 300 words must be justified), though all posts should be written using the ‘inverted pyramid’. Authors should flag where the break should occur, not more than 100 words in.  Tags should also be suggested.

Pictures are strongly encouraged with every post; authors should justify why they do not have a picture. Pictures can be self generated or sourced from an open source collection, such as flickr.com‘s creative commons licence. Authors must make sure that they have the right to use the image in the post, and should cite accordingly.

photo credit: qthomasbower