Balancing relevance and rigor: Analyzing a quarter century of issue-case selection in science communication research

Research in science communication is often grounded in specific issue contexts. Although many strands of science communication scholarship consider general concepts or processes, the selection of issue areas in which to ground science communication research is a common activity for researchers at all levels. Despite this, explicit consideration of issue-case selection practices is less common. In this article, we seek to stimulate greater discussion of issue-case selection practices and their implications for science communication as a field. To do so, we conducted a content analysis of abstracts for papers published in two major science communication journals from the mid-1990s to mid-2021. Drawing on this analysis, as well as relevant discussions of issue-case selection practices across the social sciences, we offer three concrete suggestions for issue selection that we hope stimulate greater consideration of these practices and their implications for the development of science communication as a field.