research-article

Explain like I am a Scientist: The Linguistic Barriers of Entry to r/science

Authors:

Noah A. Smith, and

Katharina ReineckeAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2020

Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376524

Published: 23 April 2020 Publication History

Abstract

As an online community for discussing research findings, r/science has the potential to contribute to science outreach and communication with a broad audience. Yet previous work suggests that most of the active contributors on r/science are science-educated people rather than a lay general public. One potential reason is that r/science contributors might use a different, more specialized language than used in other subreddits. To investigate this possibility, we analyzed the language used in more than 68 million posts and comments from 12 subreddits from 2018. We show that r/science uses a specialized language that is distinct from other subreddits. Transient (newer) authors of posts and comments on r/science use less specialized language than more frequent authors, and those that leave the community use less specialized language than those that stay, even when comparing their first comments. These findings suggest that the specialized language used in r/science has a gatekeeping effect, preventing participation by people whose language does not align with that used in r/science. By characterizing r/science's specialized language, we contribute guidelines and tools for increasing the number of contributors in r/science.

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Cited By

He CDeng YHe LGuo QZhang YLu ZLi B(2024)Engage Wider Audience or Facilitate Quality Answers? a Mixed-methods Analysis of Questioning Strategies for Research Sensemaking on a Community Q&A SiteProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373278:CSCW1(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637327
Nguyen ARai AMaruping L(2024)Understanding the Unintended Effects of Human-Machine Moderation in Addressing Harassment within Online CommunitiesJournal of Management Information Systems10.1080/07421222.2024.234083141:2(341-366)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2024.2340831
Batchelor J(2023)Just another clickbait title: A corpus-driven investigation of negative attitudes toward science on RedditPublic Understanding of Science10.1177/0963662522114645332:5(580-595)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221146453
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Index Terms

Explain like I am a Scientist: The Linguistic Barriers of Entry to r/science
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2020

10688 pages

ISBN:9781450367080

DOI:10.1145/3313831

General Chairs:
Regina Bernhaupt
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
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Monash University, Australia
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Newcastle University, UK
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RMIT, Australia
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Program Chairs:
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University of British Columbia, Canada
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University of Canterbury, New Zealand
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Grenoble Alpes University, France
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University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Shengdong (Shen) Zhao
National University of Singapore, Singapore
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Future University Hakodate, Japan & De La Salle University, Philippines
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Rafal Kocielnik
University of Washington, USA

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Published: 23 April 2020

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637327
Nguyen ARai AMaruping L(2024)Understanding the Unintended Effects of Human-Machine Moderation in Addressing Harassment within Online CommunitiesJournal of Management Information Systems10.1080/07421222.2024.234083141:2(341-366)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
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