The field of science communication doesn’t have any single, broadly accepted definition. This is because science communication is actually a collection of many different fields that have science as a common thread, the same way the life sciences—covering everything from biology to botany, ecology, genetics, physiology, virology and zoology— are a huge variety of disciplines that have the study of living organisms in common.
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SCI’s mission is lofty but necessarily so. There is a glaring need to create lateral links among scientists and their organizations.
In today’s world, information norms evolve rapidly. Inside science, they largely do not. Much of the system remains rooted in centuries-old practices: scientists write primarily for journals that few people read, data is often shared incompletely or in unusable formats, and the incentives that shape research careers reward publication volume—not communication, integration, or real-world impact. Communication is treated as a downstream obligation rather than a core function of discovery. As a result, science advances more slowly than it could, and enormous value is routinely lost—not because the research doesn’t exist, but because it is never effectively seen, shared, or used.
SCI was founded on a simple premise: improving how science communicates will improve science itself. Better communication leads to better research—more efficient funding, faster discovery, stronger collaboration, and more effective education and policy. The potential return on investment is substantial.
To advance this goal, SCI designs and manages initiatives that address specific breakdowns in how science is communicated, shared, and applied. We also convene researchers, institutions, and stakeholders across disciplines to strengthen coordination within the field of science communication, expand equitable access to knowledge, and improve the ability of scientists worldwide to work together.
These priorities are reflected in SCI’s core initiatives, where improved communication can have outsized impact: advancing open science; coordinating global policy and governance on carbon dioxide removal; and strengthening society’s resilience to disinformation. Through the Open Scholarship Initiative (OSI), SCI spent more than a decade convening global stakeholders across research, publishing, and policy to improve openness, efficiency, and equity in the research system. Through the Carbon Dioxide Removal Action Network (CDRANet), SCI is currently bringing together hundreds of leading experts worldwide to support the development of coordinated, science-based policy for large-scale carbon dioxide removal. And through its disinformation work, SCI is developing new approaches to strengthen public understanding of science and build resilience against the misuse and distortion of scientific information. Each of these efforts addresses a different dimension of the same underlying challenge: ensuring that scientific knowledge is not only generated, but effectively shared, understood, and applied.
Glenn Hampson is the founder and executive director of the Science Communication Institute, and the founder and program director for SCI’s largest projects, the Open Scholarship Initiative (OSI), and the Carbon Dioxide Removal Action Network (CDRANet). In his previous roles over the last 30 years, Glenn has worked in senior research communications roles for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, and was also the founder and president of the Castle Pacific Publishing Company, and managing editor and webmaster for the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation. Glenn is a frequent international speaker on open science issues, and has written widely on science communication.
SCI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity established in 2011 and incorporated in Washington State. Our center of operations is Seattle (we don’t maintain any physical office locations; our network operates virtually).
SCI receives funding for its projects from a variety of government, foundation, institutional, corporate and individual sponrors and donors (see our project sites for details, such as osiglobal.org). This project funding passes through SCI with no overhead charge. Funders do not influence our agenda nor do SCI’s opinions necessarily reflect the opinions of funders or their assigns (see our legal page for a dislaimer).
SCI’s legal documents and most recent federal tax filings are linked below. For more information, please see SCI’s Platinum-rated profile on GuideStar. For additional annual reports, please see the SCI website archives.
SCI’s board of directors has varied in size over the years between five and 15 members. Our board members represent a wide variety of research communication areas, and serve terms of two years minimum. We are honored to be working with these distinguished leaders on achieving our FY 2024-26 goals:
Jason Steinhauer is the bestselling author of “History Disrupted,” examining how social media shapes what we know about the past. He is a Global Fellow at The Woodrow Wilson Center, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, former founding director of the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest, and a Presidential Counselor of the National WWII Museum. Jason has traveled extensively with the US Department of State to facilitate exchanges between government officials, scholars and students on the effects of the Internet and social media on public understanding of news, history and information.
Sonia Vasconcelos is an associate professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she teaches science communication, research methodology, and research ethics and integrity. Sonia coordinates the university’s Professional Masters Program in Science Education, and Advisory Council for Research Ethics, and is a former member of the Research Integrity Committee of the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development. Sonia is also active in many other science communication related activities around the world.
Patrick Herron is a leading AI scientist with broad experience building innovative natural language processing models across a wide variety of industries. He is the author of several books on technology, scientometrics, and econometrics, and formerly a Senior Research Professor at Duke University, where he taught and conducted cross-disciplinary research on language models, breakthrough technology detection, and social network analysis.
Liz Allen is a Nature and PLOS alum with over 30 years in academic publishing, Liz has deep experience developing and introducing novel open access business models. She has also led the launch of many science journals, magazines, events and digital products and services. Liz is a fellow at the UN SDG Publisher’s Compact and is on the board of nonprofit Phoenix Bioinformatics, which specializes in research data.
Donald Samulack has been deeply involved in a wide range of science publishing management work for over 25 years. Formerly the President of US operations and Head of Global Stakeholder Engagement for Cactus Communications, Donald has been actively involved in supporting the publication needs of academic, non-profit, and commercial publishing communities, and raising the level of awareness and professionalism of good publication practices worldwide. Since early 2023, he has been serving as a consultant for Capital Media Group and other clients.