Conceptions of public communication of science by coordinators of graduate programs in public health

Scientists communicate with their community with a specific scientific language code. Each field of science develops its proper hermetic code of scientific language, which is not accessible to non-pairs. We live in a historical cultural moment in which countries, particularly those with a reasonable scientific development, became knowledge societies in which citizens must participate in the processes of decisions about scientific politics. Thus, information on scientific research must be communicated in language accessible to the ordinary citizen. What is the understanding that scientists have about the communication of science to society? This is a report of an exploratory, observational research, with analytical and descriptive characters which aimed to understand what scientists understand as public communication of science. The conception of public communication of science by the participants of this research is not unanimous. The comprehension of public communication of science as a social right and as a commitment of scientists is not explicitly present in the narrative of the coordinators of graduate programs in public health in Brazil, subjects of this research, although in general, the coordinators conceive it as a relevant activity.