R/science explained

r/science
Founder:u/spez[1]
Type:Subreddit
Users:30.4 million members
Language:English

r/science is an Internet forum on Reddit where the community of participants discuss science topics.[2] A popular feature of the forum is "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) public discussions.[2] As of 2014, r/science attracted 30,000–100,000 visitors per day, making it the largest community-managed science forum and an attractive place to host discussions.[2] It has almost 30.4 million members as of 2023.[1]

History

Nathan Allen

Nathan Allen is an American chemist. While working as a chemist at Dow Chemical Company, Allen began to imagine that scientists could use Reddit's "ask me anything" (AMA) interview format to create discussions between scientists and the public.[2] Allen became a forum moderator there and has since been prominent in guiding the culture of the community there and as a spokesperson for the forum.[2] Allen has advocated that chemists should be more active in communicating with the public in online forums such as reddit.[3]

AMA series

As of 2014, r/science attracted 30,000–100,000 visitors per day, making it the largest community-managed science forum and an attractive place to host discussions.[2] In January 2014 Allen began the r/science AMA series with the goal of raising the visibility of scientists who are producing groundbreaking work in their fields but who are not well known outside of their fields.[2] [4] Outgoing links posted in the forum must go to peer-reviewed science articles published within the last six months.[5]

The discussion series was instantly a success, and established the world's largest two-way discussion between scientists and the public.[2] Allen does most of the organization for the talks, including soliciting scientists to participate and training them to communicate in reddit's discussion format.[2]

In May 2018, the series ended due to a change in Reddit's ranking algorithm making AMA talks less visible and less engaging.[6] [7]

Featured content

r/science has an ongoing content partnership with PLOS.[8] As an academic journal, PLOS invites authors who are publishing scientific papers to publicly present their work in r/science and to participate in community "ask me anything" discussions in the forum at scheduled times.[8]

Editorial decisions

Editorial decisions in r/science are made by the moderators who themselves follow rules that they present for the forum.[5] If new rules are introduced then those are discussed with the community of readers.[5] Rules for r/science include guidance that contributors keep discussion on-topic and thoughtful.[5]

Allen led the decision to ban discussion in r/science which gives credibility to climate change denial.[9] [10]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: /r/science. Reddit. June 17, 2022. en.
  2. Owens. Simon. The World's Largest 2-Way Dialogue between Scientists and the Public. Scientific American. 7 October 2014. 6 May 2016. 20 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160820052824/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-world-s-largest-2-way-dialogue-between-scientists-and-the-public/. live.
  3. Widener . Andrea . Head moderator of Reddit's science community says chemists need to be more active online . Chemical & Engineering News . 20 November 2017 . 95 . 46 . 22–23 . 18 January 2023 . 18 January 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230118165532/https://cen.acs.org/content/cen/articles/95/i46/Head-moderator-Reddit-science-community-says-chemists-need-to-be-more-active-online.html . live .
  4. Web site: Allen. Nathan. Announcing the r/science AMA Series. Reddit.com. 6 May 2016. 21 January 2014. 25 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160325230509/https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1vqimu/announcing_the_rscience_ama_series/. live.
  5. Web site: Owens. Simons. Should Reddit's powerful mods be reined in?. The Daily Dot. 9 May 2016. 14 April 2015. 20 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160420094428/http://www.dailydot.com/technology/reddit-moderator-crisis/. live.
  6. Web site: Tracy . Philip . How Reddit killed one of its most popular AMAs . The Daily Dot . en . 23 May 2018 . 18 January 2023 . 25 September 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220925152752/https://www.dailydot.com/debug/reddit-r-science-ama/ . live .
  7. Web site: nallen . r/science will no longer be hosting AMAs . reddit . en . 18 May 2018 . 18 January 2023 . 5 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221205151942/https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/8khscc/rscience_will_no_longer_be_hosting_amas/ . live .
  8. Web site: Costello. Victoria. Ask our authors anything: new PLOS 'AMA' series debuts on redditscience. PLOS. 11 May 2016. 15 April 2015. 13 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160513135942/http://blogs.plos.org/plos/2015/04/plos/. live.
  9. Web site: Allen. Nathan. Reddit's science forum banned climate deniers. Why don't all newspapers do the same?. Grist. 6 May 2016. 16 December 2013. 29 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160429174935/http://grist.org/climate-energy/reddits-science-forum-banned-climate-deniers-why-dont-all-newspapers-do-the-same/. live.
  10. Web site: Lee. Jane J.. Reddit Science's Ban on Climate Change Denial Posts Rears Its Head Again. National Geographic. 9 May 2016. 20 December 2013. 4 June 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160604210354/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/reddit-science-s-ban-on-climate-change-denial-posts-rears-its-head-again/. dead.

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