Cell Article about Science Blogging
Laura Bonetta's article "Scientists Enter the Blogosphere" just came out in Cell (Volume 129, Issue 3, 4 May 2007, Pages 443-445) . UsefulChem got a mention:
Jean-Claude Bradley and his students at Drexel University are experimenting with a live open lab notebook on his blog Useful Chemistry (http://usefulchem.blogspot.com) and wiki (http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com). The blog discusses and analyzes results, with links to the raw data on the wiki.It warms the cockles of my heart to see incoming links from ScienceDirect to our blogs because it means the chasm separating social software from tradition has been bridged one more time.
Bradley's group writes down the experimental plan, the results as raw data, observations, then conclusions—every detail a scientist would include in a lab notebook except that the information is available on the Web for everyone to see and comment on. “We don't just put things that work but also failed experiments. We thought that if we cannot use the data maybe others will find a use for them,” says Bradley. People have come to Useful Chemistry looking for the boiling point of a given compound or a chemical reaction. “It is encouraging to see that,” says Bradley. “Part of what we wanted to do was put small bits of information out there that might be useful.” He has not yet tried to publish any of the data on his blog but says he will soon be in a position to do so. He is well aware that most top-tier journals have guidelines precluding publication of anything that has already been reported, regardless of its format.
4 Comments:
Thumbs up!
Have you ever considered adding 'numly' identifiers to your articles?
http://www.numly.com
This faciliates finding things back. Maybe even DOI's are possible? Keep me posted if you check this option?
Joerg
Well done
However it does NOT warm any part of my body to see Science Direct requires 30 USD from me to read this article.
Joerg,
Yes I looked into Numly briefly when Rich Apodaca reported on it a while back. But since it only provides a link to the user's website, it cannot guarantee that the website didn't change so I don't see the point. If it kept a copy with a validated third-party timestamp the way Wikispaces does with wiki page versions it might be more useful.
Peter,
Yes, it is somewhat ironic that an article discussing openness is closed. But as you know, since you have done this yourself, sometimes that is the best way to reach audiences on the other side.
Yes, my Sciencebase blog got a mention in a Nature article once and that still brings in....oooh....a dozen or so extra readers every month
Incidentally, I just unearthed another Bradley, this time a Phil Bradley, he blogs about search engines and techniques for using them. He has a very interesting run down of which search engine to use for what purpose.
db
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