This past spring, in partnership with the Story Collider, we launched Springer Storytellers, and its blog, Before the Abstract.

Springer Storytellers hosts events throughout the year where researchers get on stage and tell their true, personal stories in front of a live audience. The inaugural event was held at the American Astronomical Society meeting in January. There are upcoming events at the Society for Neuroscience and the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting.

The website, beforetheabstract.com, is open and accessible to the public, and features podcasts and posts. Readers can not only subscribe to updates directly through the site but follow us on twitter @b4theabstract and facebook.com/beforetheabstract.

The Springer Storytellers initiative highlights the importance and utility of storytelling in science. As the need to communicate research beyond the confines of scholarly circles grows, Springer is offering authors and potential authors the opportunity to talk about their real-life experiences as researchers, in their own words.

We feature these personal stories through a mix of podcasts recorded at live events and written submissions, as well as a section featuring discussions on storytelling in scientific communications and tips on how to craft a narrative.

I personally got the chance to attend one of the events at Brooklyn’s Bell House this past Spring, and I’m also helping to organize the one taking place at the Materials Research Society meeting in Boston in early December. But perhaps the best way to get a sense of what this is all about is to listen to/watch some of the videos and podcasts. So here are a few: