23 Sep 08

Nick Anthis from the University of Oxford is one of a group of bloggers who think blogs can play a powerful role in the academic process.

Science blogs should be embraced by universities and research institutions as powerful tools to advance scientific collaboration and reach out to the public, says a group of bloggers including Nick Anthis from the University of Oxford. They outline their argument in an article published in PLoS Biology.

There are an estimated 1200 science blogs in existence – web-logs written about science or written by practicing scientists – that already form a thriving online science community. The immediacy, interactivity, and reach of blog posts can distill the importance of new findings in an accessible way or provide a forum to discuss new results.

'There’s no doubt blogs can play a powerful role in the academic process,' says Anthis, who blogs on science and politics as The Scientific Activist. 'They foster communications within the scientific community. I’ve also come across stories of new research collaborations being formed, careers being advanced, and media appearances resulting from conversations on scientists’ blogs.'

Nick Anthis, along with fellow bloggers Shelley A. Batts of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Tara C. Smith of the University of Iowa, believes that academic institutions have been slow to appreciate blogs as important forums for scholarly discussion.

'We believe institutions should pay attention,' says Anthis. 'Universities are in a unique position to foster collaborations and bring in people to blogging.'

The three scientists propose ways in which the blogosphere can be harnessed usefully by institutions. These include highlighting existing blogs by university members, agreeing common goals for blogs, or applying some level of quality control and self-regulation. The suggestions should make blogs more acceptable to institutional hosts and more trustworthy to readers.

'We want to see an attitude shift so that blogging becomes a more acceptable part of academic culture,' says Anthis. 'It’s happening slowly, but we want to catalyse that change.'

Successful examples cited by the group include Stanford University, which hosts a directory including links to blogs by faculty, staff, students and alumni of the institutions. The Stanford Blog Directory lists over 150 blogs by keywords and blogger affiliation. The Oxford Internet Institute similarly hosts a network of blogs written by some of its students and fellows.

'By initiating frank and open-minded conversations about shared goals, blogs and institutions can work together to advance the quality and scope of the ongoing global conversation about science we all participate in and depend upon,' the authors write.