When is it legitimate for a researcher to go beyond means of scientific communication?

Abstract

Science and the information world have long been separated. The XXI century will be the one of constant interaction due to the development of novel, exceedingly efficient and fast technologies to share information, including coming from science. Whereas traditionally scientists did not interact with communication people, this is doomed to change. Therefore, nowadays, researchers face the dilemma of when and how to communicate outside the realm of purely scientific domains. The present paper, based on the experience of the author, will, through examples of tobacco, cannabis, hormones, as well as environmental pollutants, attempt to define the prerequisite for the legitimacy of such an approach in the specific case of cancer epidemiology and prevention.