Professional Role of Science Communicators in Educational and Research Organizations in Russia

In view of the increased competitiveness in Russian science, there appears to be a need for specialists whose purpose would be to promote scientific organizations. Such specialists call themselves corporate science communicators or science PR-specialists. In this paper, their professional role was examined, in particular: how do corporate scientific communicators determine their role, what functions they perform in the process of interaction with target audiences and how professionalization of corporate scientific communicators in Russia is taking place. The peculiarity of this research is the consideration of these specialists from the point of view of the sociology of professions, in particular, emphasis was placed on the approach of A. Abbott, who describes the world of professions as an ecological system. The results of the research showed that corporate science communicators in Russia as a profession are at the stage of origin: there is no clear understanding of their subject area, and, consequently, their place in the space of conjugate professions (scientists, scientific journalists, PR specialists); unified standards of work and evaluation of their effectiveness have not been formed. Nevertheless, at this moment several educational programs on science communication in higher educational institutions have been created, as well as various courses and trainings. Moreover, the emergence of the association (Association of Communicators in Education and Science) and the holding of the first specialized forums and awards contribute to the formation of the self-identification of this professional group.