Abstract
Much has been written about the need for better communication between scientists and journalists (as surrogates for the public), but the process by which this might happen has been left relatively unexplored. This article introduces some useful communication ground rules, starting with a premise introduced several years ago at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: "Journalists are more compelled to understand scientists than scientists are compelled to understand journalists." Once scientists understand what journalists are after, how they work, and their pressing need to understand scientists, communication becomes far easier than if there were an adversarial relationship