From public understanding of science to scientific communication. Conditions of the development of scientific communication in Poland

Abstract

This article is devoted to selected aspects of scientific communication in Poland. Its aim is to draw attention to the role of scientific communication in public understanding of science and to indicate the most important determinants of the development of scientific communication in Poland. It is assumed in the article that scientific communication and the popularization of research results are activities undertaken by scientists, science units and entities acting for the benefit of science in specific systemic, financial, legal or political conditions. Therefore, in order to assess the determinants of the development of scientific communication in a given country it is necessary, first of all, to get know the conditions in which it takes place. An institutional-legal analysis was used to prove this thesis. In the first, descriptive part of the article the history of the development of public understanding of science and its relationship with the development of scientific communication are mentioned, the second, research part refers to the results of the analysis of basic legal acts and available data in the scope of: the place and role of scientific communication in Polish scientific policy, including the present state of the higher education system and the solutions proposed in the reform of higher education prepared by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education; the place and role of popularization of research results in the development strategy of a scientific unit on the example of the University of Gdańsk and university/researcher’s obligations in the field of scientific communication towards research funding institutions.