Dr. Germana Barata is a research associate of the ScholCommLab and a science communication researcher at the Laboratory of Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor) and the Centre for the Development of Creativity (Nudecri) at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil. She holds a MSc and PhD in History of Science from São Paulo University and a productivity research fellowship in science communication at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Brazil. She also teaches in Labjor/Unicamp’s Master in Science Communication program and coordinates the graduate Science Journalism course at Unicamp.

Germana’s research focuses on how social media and altmetrics (alternative metrics for measuring the societal impact of science) affect the value of Brazilian Science journals. Her project, “Social impact of the Brazilian Science production through science communication”, was financed by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP no. 2016/14173-2). She has also worked on a project in partnership with University of the Fraser Valley, Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (SWCC), and ACS (Association des Communicateurs Scientifique du Quebéc) called “Mapping the new landscape of science communicators and writers in Canada”, funded by SSHRC.

Germana writes at Ciência em Revista and Diário de Vancouver, a monthly Vancouver diary for Jornal da Unicamp. A complete list of her publications and presentations can be found at ResearchGate, and she can be found on Twitter at @germanabarata.

Select Publications

Benson Marshall, M., Pinfield, S., Abbott, P., Cox, A., Alperin, J. P., Barata, G. F., Chtena, N., Dorsch, I., Fleerackers, A., Oliveira, M., & Peters, I. (2024). The impact of COVID-19 on the debate on open science: a qualitative analysis of published materials from the period of the pandemic. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03804-w
Barata, G., Oliveira, M., Peixoto, T., Almeida, C. C. de, Mazoni, A. F., Comesana, R. C., & Alperin, J. P. (2024). Comunicado de imprensa como indicador de atenção social qualificada da ciência: a construção de um banco de dados e suas potencialidades. Liinc em Revista, 20(1), e7046–e7046. https://revista.ibict.br/liinc/article/view/7046
Marshall, M. B., Pinfield, S., Abbott, P., Cox, A., Alperin, J. P., Barata, G., Chtena, N., Dorsch, I., Fleerackers, A., Oliveira, M., & Peters, I. (2024). The impact of COVID-19 on the debate on open science: An analysis of expert opinion. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/xy874
Fleerackers, A., Chtena, N., Pinfield, S., Alperin, J. P., Barata, G., Oliveira, M., & Peters, I. (2024). Making science public: a review of journalists’ use of Open Access research. F1000Research. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.133710.2
Riedlinger, M., Schiele, A., & Barata, G. (2021). Emerging practices in science communication in Canada. In B. Schiele, X. Liu, & M. Bauer (Eds.), Science Cultures in a Diverse World: Knowing, Sharing, Caring (pp. 91–109). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5379-7_5
De Oliveira, T. M., Barata, G., & Uribe-Tirado, A. (2021). Ten years of Altmetrics: a review of Latin America contributions. Journal of Scientometric Research, 10(1s), s102–s114. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5530/jscires.10.1s.26
Barata, G. (2021). Open Science for editors II. In Elisabete Werlang & Paulo Eduardo Carlim (Eds.), Desafios e perspectivas da editoria científica (pp. 133–144). Associação Brasileira de Editores Científicos (ABEC Brasil). https://doi.org/10.21452/abec.2021.isbn.978-65-993452-1-0.cap12
Velho, R. M., & Barata, G. (2020). Profiles, challenges, and motivations of science Youtubers. Frontiers in Communication, 5, 542936. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.542936
Barata, G., & Manica, D. (2020, November 6). Stem-cells from menstrual blood in Twitter: Paper attention on social media. The 2020 Altmetrics Workshop: The Future is Now, Virtual. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Stem-cells-from-menstrual-blood-in-Twitter%3A-paper-Barata-Manica/08a060e69e4d340c2f291ebbb7c307fb13032006
Enkhbayar, A., Haustein, S., Barata, G., & Alperin, J. P. (2020). How much research shared on Facebook happens outside of public pages and groups? A comparison of public and private online activity around PLOS ONE papers. Quantitative Science Studies, 1(2), 749–770. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00044
Rode, S. D. M., & Barata, G. (2019). Ciência brasileira: Impactos para muito além do Fator de Impacto. Revista Pesquisa Em Fisioterapia, 9(4), 444. https://doi.org/10.17267/2238-2704rpf.v9i4.2609
Riedlinger, M., Barata, G., & Schiele, A. (2019). The landscape of science communication in contemporary Canada: A focus on anglophone actors and networks. Cultures of Science, 2(1), 51–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/209660831900200105
Barata, G. (2019). More relevant alternative metrics for Latin America. Transinformação, 31, e190031. https://doi.org/10.1590/2318-0889201931e190031
Riedlinger, M., Schiele, A., & Barata, G. (2018, September 16). Mapping the contemporary science communication landscape in Canada. Science & You Conference, Beijing, China.
Barata, G., Riedlinger, M., Schiele, A., & Pablo Alperin, J. (2018, September 16). Using social media metrics to identify science communicators in Canada. Science & You Conference, Beijing, China.
Barata, G., Araujo, R. F., Alperin, J. P., & Rodríguez, C. T. (2018). O uso de mídias sociais por acadêmicos Brasileiros. Encontro Brasileiro de Bibliometria e Cientometria, 209–217. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9933884.v1
Barata, G., Shores, K., & Alperin, J. P. (2018). Local chatter or international buzz? Language differences on posts about Zika research on Twitter and Facebook. PLOS ONE, 13(1), e0190482. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190482
Barata, G., Caldas, G., Gascoigne, T., Barata, G., Caldas, G., & Gascoigne, T. (2017). Brazilian science communication research: national and international contributions. Anais Da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, AHEAD, 0–0. https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201720160822