Evaluation of the Effect of Outreach Activities on Publicizing Radiolarians in Japan Based on the Analysis of Google Trends of "Radiolaria" in 2012-2022.

Radiolarians hold a high academic value (e.g., geological, paleontological, and biological); however, they are not well known to the public worldwide. In conjunction with the InterRad XV in Niigata 2017 (Fifteenth Inter-Rad, international conference of radiolarians), certain outreach activities were conducted to raise the profile of radiolarians. Changes in the Google Trends of "Radiolaria" in Japanese were analyzed to evaluate the publicity effect. The search frequency of the term "..." (Radiolaria in Japanese) increased in the first half of 2017 when the outreach activities were conducted. Image search frequency increased noticeably in September 2019 when a picture book featuring radiolarians was published with related photograph exhibitions. Outreach activities related to InterRad XVachieved the desired effect of raising the radiolarian profile. Furthermore, the release of the picture book and the organization of the photograph exhibitions may have attracted the interest of people in radiolarian images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]