Public relations in science: managing the trust portfolio

Public relations (PR) have come to play an important and inextricable part in science communication. Whether they acknowledge it or not, scientific organisations use PR in a variety of ways. Higher education organisations advertise the quality of their programmes to recruit new students and faculty. Research-performing organisations (some of which also have higher education programmes) release information on new results to publicise work being funded by government and private foundations in order to display accountability, but also in hopes of gaining public visibility and thus attracting additional funding. Non-profit advocacy organisations publicise their work to appeal to new donors or call attention to their issues and how they have been able to effect legislative or policy change. Corporate scientific institutions attract and retain customers or investors or seek to change consumer behaviour toward their, or a similar, product.