@article{ref1,
title="Exploring new web-based tools to identify public interest in science",
journal="Public understanding of science",
year="2011",
author="Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet and Segev, Elad",
volume="20",
number="1",
pages="130-143",
abstract="There is scant research-based evidence regarding what the public is interested in knowing about science, and more knowledge is needed to tailor relevant and engaging formal and free-choice science environments for different publics. This methodological paper describes the potential and limitations of three existing web-based tools —  Google Trends, Google Zeitgeist, and Google Insights for Search — for PUS research. It shows how these tools can be used to (1) identify interests in science and pseudoscience, (2) conduct a cross-national comparison of popular science and pseudoscience-related searches and (3) discover possible motivations when searching for specific terms. Trends identified using analyses of online queries are discussed. These provide a bottom-up assessment of PUS, and may add another argument to the controversy regarding quantitative measures and the deficit model.<p />",
language="",
issn="0963-6625",
doi="10.1177/0963662509346496",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963662509346496"
}