The GlobalSCAPE project is setting out to investigate the experiences, attitudes, skills, needs, challenges and professional development of science communicators around the world. This is being achieved with a diary survey, a style of survey designed to be repeated at a set interval several times. The idea of such a survey is that the unfolding nature of a phenomenon can be more effectively captured through repeated measures than through a conventional cross-sectional survey design. Because the aims, scope and approach of this study are novel, a newly developed survey design was required. This work was led by survey experts within the GlobalSCAPE consortium, with input and feedback from other partners. The results survey design contained some previously validated items, but none that had been empirically assessed for the present context and survey structure. Therefore, to assess the clarity of survey questions prepared for the GlobalSCAPE science communicator diary research, a pilot study was conducted with a sample of participants gathered by project partners (n=23). This pilot research followed a piggyback approach, where follow up questions were asked of respondents after they completed each step in the survey. Results indicate that the vast majority of the questions were already clear and easy to understand. A small number of items resulted in a minority of respondents reporting uncertainty or confusion about how to respond. To address these issues, targeted adjustments to the survey design have been made. This methodological research offers insights to others who may seek to conduct survey studies with science communicators. It may also be helpful to those conducting diary survey research with professionals more generally.

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