r/science

r/science, formally dubbed the New Reddit Journal of 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]

r/science
Type of site
Subreddit
Available inEnglish
Founder(s)u/spez[1]
URLwww.reddit.com/r/science
CommercialYes
LaunchedOctober 18, 2006 (2006-10-18)[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]

References
  1. "/r/science". Reddit. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  2. Owens, Simon (7 October 2014). "The World's Largest 2-Way Dialogue between Scientists and the Public". Scientific American. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  3. Widener, Andrea (20 November 2017). "Head moderator of Reddit's science community says chemists need to be more active online". Chemical & Engineering News. 95 (46): 22–23.
  4. Allen, Nathan (21 January 2014). "Announcing the r/science AMA Series". Reddit.com. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  5. Owens, Simons (14 April 2015). "Should Reddit's powerful mods be reined in?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  6. Tracy, Philip (23 May 2018). "How Reddit killed one of its most popular AMAs". The Daily Dot.
  7. nallen (18 May 2018). "r/science will no longer be hosting AMAs". reddit.
  8. Costello, Victoria (15 April 2015). "Ask our authors anything: new PLOS 'AMA' series debuts on redditscience". PLOS. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  9. Allen, Nathan (16 December 2013). "Reddit's science forum banned climate deniers. Why don't all newspapers do the same?". Grist. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  10. Lee, Jane J. (20 December 2013). "Reddit Science's Ban on Climate Change Denial Posts Rears Its Head Again". National Geographic. Retrieved 9 May 2016.

Further reading
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