The Science Media Centre Spain provides what you need when science hits the headlines. What do we do exactly, how do we work, who are we? Find out below.
The SMC Spain provides resources for journalists, researchers and press officers, to help enhance news coverage when science hits the headlines.
The SMC Spain is an independent office that provides the media with resources, reliable content, and expert sources to cover science-related news. Set up by the Spanish Foundation of Science and Technology (FECYT), we are part of an international network of SMCs that started in 2002.
Because–to paraphrase the SMC UK—the media will do science better when scientists do the media better. Lots of science news generate controversy, and improving public debate requires nuanced context, reliable sources and evidence.
We offer content to cover science news at different speeds: quick expert reactions, explainers and analysis. We also offer resources on communication and current affairs, as well as briefings for journalists–all under a Creative Commons licence.
We look out for controversial science news to react with the speed that the media needs. We cover embargoed science articles and monitor public debates that require specialist input to provide rigour and context to journalists as quickly as possible.
You can find us on this website and on our social media channels. We also send embargoed and non-embargoed content to registered journalists so that they can quickly include it in their news coverage.
Our team is made up of journalists with extensive experience in science news. We work together with scientists, as well as press offices of research centres and universities, and with the support of our advisory board.
The SMC Spain aims to enhance science media coverage with context, expert sources, and the best available evidence. This is the only way to improve the quality of public debates on the many topical issues linked to science.
This group of independent advisors provides guidance and expertise to our team.
When science generates controversy on the news agenda, the SMC Spain responds quickly with 'reactions' from expert sources that help put the news in context. The topics we cover can originate from research results (which we find out about before they are published, through the embargo system of scientific journals) or from current affairs (statements, crises, announcements, etc.).
We also publish articles written by specialists: ‘expert voices’ columns and explainers written by members of the editorial staff, called ‘what we know’.
We choose sources according to their expertise, seeking different points of view among the scientific community that help enrich public debate. We also strive to ensure gender balance among our sources and to state possible conflicts of interest for each of them.
The SMC Spain compiles a database of researchers for internal use only, with labels by area. If you, as a scientist, would like to be included in this database, please write to us.
The contents of the SMC Spain are published under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence, which permits the copying, distribution, public communication, and transformation of such contents, including for commercial purposes.
- Journalists can subscribe to access embargoed content before science information is made public. They will have to agree in writing to comply with the embargo policy, and will be responsible for ensuring that embargoed materials are not disseminated, be it in part or in full. The SMC Spain reserves the right to authorise registration. In no event shall SMC Spain be liable for the misuse of embargoed material by a journalist. Failure to comply with the embargo policy will result in the journalist's automatic removal from the SMC Spain’s list.
- Press officers can register their institutions in the SMC Spain’s directory, to make searches easier for journalists. This also means that all the content produced with input from scientists from a given research centre will appear together on our website.
The mission of an SMC is to make the best available science available to journalists. Operational and editorial independence is achieved through:
- A statute that ensures the independence of SMC Spain, avoiding any kind of interference in its contents, whatever the subject matter.
- An advisory board, made up of independent volunteer advisors from the fields of science, engineering, medicine, journalism, and communication, who provide expertise and guidance.
In addition to a governance structure that ensures independence, another key element for the SMCs is sustained funding over time. Some centres have achieved this through a model of external funding from multiple sources, with a maximum percentage share of the total for each funder, so that the SMC’s activity is not subject to the interests of any one institution.
Other SMCs operate with public funding and small private donations. The Spanish SMC was launched with funding from FECYT and, if deemed appropriate in the future, donations may be sought from organisations with an interest in scientific information: research bodies and centres, universities, science-based companies, publishers, professional and patient societies, the media, research funders and the government itself.
SMC Spain has its origins in the science news agency SINC. Created by FECYT in 2008, SINC is a reference for science journalists.
In 2021, SINC joined the COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub, together with the international network of Science Media Centres. Inclusion in this hub promoted the creation of an SMC in Spain that was to expand the toolkit for dealing with science in the media.