Clarity of Scientific Presentation: Prerequisite for the Communication Between Scientist and the Public

Based on our editorial, scientific, and educational experience, we think that most problems in communication between scientists and the general public could be avoided if scientists underwent training in communication skills early in their careers. Unfortunately, such training is ignored by most university curricula. Scientists are primarily trained to become dexterous in the technical aspects of science, whereas the acquisition of communication skills is almost completely overlooked, despite the fact that communication and clear presentation of research results is a constituent part of scientific work. Above all, scientists are evaluated according the number and quality of their scientific publications, which largely depends on their skill in presenting their research data to their colleagues in a clear and comprehensible way. We present the theoretical framework for understanding the confounding factors that hamper communication among scientists and between scientists and the general public. Poor or non-existent systematic teaching of scientific methodology, low academic criteria, and low quality of the journals are the main confounding factors affecting scientific communication in a small scientific and academic community. We describe the example of the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ), which while struggling (successfully) to become an internationally recognized journal made an effort to teach its authors the principles of scientific communication and to institute an author-helpful policy of manuscript review. This experience helped us realize that the writing/communication skills should be