Scooped by a Blog Article

The Scientist printed an article on the blogging of scientific data, with a focus on Reed Cartwright's inclusion as a co-author on a paper because of ideas that he shared on his blog. This is an impressive example of how social software can serve as a primary information source in science (whether intentionally or not).

The part I enjoyed the most (referring to Bora):

Zivkovic concedes that he has had less luck in convincing people that he should post his dissertation on his blog before he publishes it. "But if and when I get to having my own lab I'd like to be completely open," he says, "having a live blog where everyone posts what happens in the lab every day."

I have had several people express the same sentiment to me in the past few months, including at the American Chemical Society a week ago. When they are in a position to do so I'll make sure to report it here.

UsefulChem got a mention as well.

Jean-Claude Bradley and his colleagues at Drexel University are already experimented with such a live lab-log. Their blog, Useful Chemistry, is being put forward as "an attempt at open source science in chemistry." They post their raw data and ideas for experiments on tropical diseases in an attempt to build collaborations, hoping it will spark pharmaceutical development on neglected diseases.

Thanks to Bora for alerting me.