Sugimoto, C. R. and Thelwall, M. (2013), Scholars on soap boxes: Science communication and dissemination in TED videos. Journal of the American Society for Information Science.
This study uses a range of bibliometric (citation) and webometric (usage and bookmarking) indicators to examine TED videos in order to provide insights into the type and scope of their impact. The results suggest that TED Talks impact primarily the public sphere, with about three-quarters of a billion total views, rather than the academic realm. Differences were found among broad disciplinary areas, with art and design videos having generally lower levels of impact but science and technology videos generating otherwise average impact for TED.
Sharon, A. J. och Baram-Tsabari, A. (2013), Measuring mumbo jumbo: A preliminary quantification of the use of jargon in science communication. Public Understanding of Science, January 21, 2013.
Here a standard yardstick for the use of scientific jargon in spoken texts, using a computational linguistics approach, is proposed. Analyzed transcripts included academic speech, scientific TEDTalks, and communication about the discovery of a Higgs-like boson at CERN. Findings suggest that scientists use less jargon in communication with a general audience than in communication with peers, but not always less obscure jargon.