Prof. Eric Jensen
CEO and Research Director
Prof. Eric Jensen
CEO and Research Director
Books
Articles
Chapters
Reports
Publications
Books (selected)
Doing research in the real world: 5th Edition
From first planning to writing up your research, this complete guide will help you push your project forward. Walking you through every step you need…
Science communication: An introduction
A concise, coherent and easily readable textbook about the field of science communication, connecting the practice of science communicators with theory. In the book, recent…
Doing real research: A practical guide to social research
Challenging the formality and idealized settings of conventional methods teaching and opting instead for a real world approach to social research, this book offers frank,…
Culture and Social Change: Transforming society through the power of ideas.
This book brings together social sciencists to create an interdisciplinary dialogue on the topic of social change as a cultural process. Culture is as much…
Articles in International Peer-reviewed Journals
Critical review of the UK’s “gold standard” survey of public attitudes to science. Public Understanding of Science
Since 2000, the UK government has funded surveys aimed at understanding the UK public’s attitudes toward science, scientists, and science policy. Known as the Public…
Norms and Values in UK Science Engagement Practice
In recent years, there has been a rhetorical shift from ‘deficit’ to ‘dialogue’ and ‘engagement’ in UK policy and institutional discourse about science communication. Past…
SMILE: Twitter emotion classification using domain adaptation. CEUR Workshop Proceedings
Despite the widely spread research interest in social media sentiment analysis, sentiment and emotion classification across different domains and on Twitter data remains a challenging…
Outreach: Science festivals preach to the choir
Science festivals are designed to expand the public's interest in science, but we find that this genre of science communication appeals mainly to a select…
Critical response to Archer et al. (2015). “Science Capital”: A conceptual, methodological, and empirical argument for extending Bourdieusian notions of capital beyond the arts
Archer et al. (2015) propose contributing to science education theory by introducing the concept of ‘science capital’ to supplement influential French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theory.…
Evaluating impact and quality of experience in the 21st century: using technology to narrow the gap between science communication research and practice
This essay begins by identifying some of the common challenges that explain this gap between evaluation evidence and practice. Automating evaluation processes through new technologies…
Evaluating indicator-based methods of ‘measuring long-term impacts of a science center on its community
This article addresses some of the challenges faced when attempting to evaluate the long-term impact of informal science learning interventions. To contribute to the methodological…
Highlighting the value of impact evaluation: enhancing informal science learning and public engagement theory and practice
In this critical response essay, I highlight the article’s tendency to construct a straw man version of ‘impact evaluation’ that is impossible to achieve, while…
Evaluating the contribution of zoos and aquariums to Aichi Biodiversity Target 1
The United Nations Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 is a key initiative within global efforts to halt and eventually reverse the loss of biodiversity. The…
Cloning wild life: zoos, captivity, and the future of endangered animals
Cloning Wild Life presents a largely sociological account of endangered species cloning practices laced with narratives from the author's research. This research included interviews with…
Chapters in Edited Books
Promise and pitfalls of audience segmentation in public conservation education
Jensen, A. M. & Jensen, E. A. (in press). Promise and pitfalls of audience segmentation in public conservation education. In E. Jensen (Ed.), Making the most of conservation…
Why We (Still) Do Not Know the Educational Impact of Zoos and Aquariums: Assessing Current Evaluation Methods and Ways to Improve Them
This book summarizes a range of psychological research into how zoos and aquariums operate in the minds of visitors and the broader public. Bringing together…
Why impact evaluation matters in science communication: Or, advancing the science of science communication
Why do we need to communicate science? Is science, with its highly specialised language and its arcane methods, too distant to be understood by the…
Environmental communication
A concise, coherent and easily readable textbook about the field of science communication, connecting the practice of science communicators with theory. In the book, recent…
Informal science education
A concise, coherent and easily readable textbook about the field of science communication, connecting the practice of science communicators with theory. In the book, recent…
The challenges of ‘measuring long-term impacts of a science center on Its community’: A methodological review
This chapter assesses Falk and Needham’s (2011) study of the California Science Center’s long-term impact on the Los Angeles population’s scientific understanding, attitudes, and interests.…
Genetic Futures and the Media
Today, public debate over genetic futures takes place within a new societal context. There is a greater emphasis from policymakers on promoting engagement between sciences…
Extending the Trajectory Equifinality Model’s conceptual methodological toolkit to account for continuous development
Making of the Future is the first English‐language coverage of the new methodological perspective in cultural psychology—TEA (Trajectory Equifinality Approach) that was established in 2004…
Education on Biodiversity in the Polar Regions
The polar regions are famously associated with extreme temperatures, ice, snow, legendary explorers, indigenous people, polar bears, penguins and other impressive fauna and flora. The…
Creativity and culture for all? Enhancing cultural participation in museums and galleries
Museums, galleries, and festival visitors have been the subject of a great deal of research interest in recent years. However, to date little headway has…
Government Reports (selected)
Investigating the link between research data and impact (Phase 1 and Phase 2 reports)
The Institute for Methods Innovation – a research charity registered in the United States and United Kingdom – was commissioned by the Australian Research Data…
Supporting UNESCO Member States in Evidencing 10 Key Priority Areas – Measures and Indicators for Lithuania, Serbia and South Africa
The UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (RSSR) sets out a number of globally agreed expectations for national systems of science to anticipate and…
GRRIP WP5 – Researcher Survey
Respondents of this survey work in a research performing or research funding organisation in the marine and maritime sector which is taking part in the GRRIP…
GRRIP WP5 – Stakeholder Survey
This dataset includes the full survey data of the GRRIP project's WP5 Stakeholder Survey, including documentation about using the dataset and the original survey design.
RRING Global Survey Research Dataset (WP3)
The RRING Work Package 3 (WP3) objective was to clarify how Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) and Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) operated within region-specific research and…
Viral Communication Phase I-II
This dataset represents the anonymised data collected as part of the Viral Communication (Understand-ELSED) project. It includes the two measurements, Phase I (30 October 2020…
Viral Communication Phase I-II Merged
This dataset represents the anonymised data collected as part of the Viral Communication (Understand-ELSED) project. It includes the two measurements, Phase I (30 October 2020…
Understand-ELSED Main Survey Phase I Data
This dataset represents the anonymized data collected as part of the Viral Communication (Understand-ELSED) main survey between 30 October 2020 and 14 December 2020. Weights…
Viral Communication: Longitudinal Survey Data on the Social Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic
This dataset represents the anonymised data collected as part of the Viral Communication (Understand-ELSED) project, which focussed on the social and ethical dimensions of the…
Cosmic Vision Public Consultation on EU Public Attitudes about the Future of Space Science
Jensen, E. A. & Jensen, A. M. (2019). Cosmic Vision Public Consultation on EU Public Attitudes about the Future of Space Science. European Space Agency.
Professional Publications (selected)
Linking policy and practice in monitoring socially responsible research and innovation (RRI): A conceptual framework to evaluate progress through the UNESCO-led Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers
This paper sets out a high-level conceptual framework for monitoring the development of socially responsible research and innovation (RRI) systems linked to the global policy…
Introducing cinematic scientific visualization: A new frontier in science communication
With rapid advances in science, data processing, and computer graphics technologies, the line between representations of “real science” and “Hollywood science” is blurring. The film…
South African scientists explain why they make time for science festivals
Science festivals across the world attract millions of visitors every year. They are typically busy, buzzing events: visitors stroll through interactive displays, enjoy science-themed shows…
Has the pandemic changed public attitudes about science?
The article explores how public attitudes toward science and scientists have evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, as experts and evidence-based approaches took center stage in…
Science in Ireland Barometer 2020 National Survey of Public Attitudes about Science
In 2019, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) commissioned Qualia Analytics to run the 2020 wave of its public science attitudes survey, the SFI Science in Ireland…
State of the Art of RRI in the Five UNESCO World Regions
The overall project aim is to bring RRI into the linked up global world to promote mutual learning and collaboration in RRI. This will be…
Supporting UNESCO Member States in Evidencing 10 Key Priority Areas – Measures and Indicators for Lithuania, Serbia and South Africa
The UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (RSSR) sets out a number of globally agreed expectations for national systems of science to anticipate and…
The UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers will transform working conditions, rights and responsibilities of researchers globally
While national science and innovation public policy is often in flux, truly global science policy initiatives are rare. Such a global initiative gained acceptance in…
For science communication to be effective it should be evidence based
At its best, science communication can empower research and innovation systems to address global challenges. It does this by improving the relationships with stakeholders in…
Mapping of funding for digital projects and skills
Jensen, A. M., Jensen, E. A. & Romain, S. (2017). Mapping of funding for digital projects and skills. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS):…
Training | Evaluation | Research | Impact
Ireland | United States of America
methodsinnovation.org is owned and operated by The Institute for Methods Innovation, which is a registered US non-profit, tax-exempt corporation under 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Institute for Methods Innovation is also a registered non-profit in Ireland.
© Institute for Methods Innovation 2017-2025. All rights reserved.