EurekAlert disses blogs : A Blog Around The Clock

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My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com

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EurekAlert disses blogs

Category: Science Reporting
Posted on: March 7, 2007 1:24 PM, by Coturnix

EurekAlert which is run by AAAS is a useful and timely (though not foolproof) source of science news that many science bloggers use to keep up to date on what's new. However, they seem to be behind the curve in at least one way - they categorically do not disembargo the papers to blogs of any kind, not even blogs affiliated with scientific or journalistic organizations. How do they think they will start entering the 21st century and remain competitive?

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Comments

EurekAlert! is dead to me now.

Posted by: Hsien Lei | March 7, 2007 3:41 PM

Herm, this sounds familiar... something about the printing press and the Bible and literacy...

Science bloggers are THE people they should be giving access too. I certainly think theyre more qualified than the authors of the terrible 'summaries' of recent publications I see in my local newspaper. Plus its interactive-- readers can ask questions of the blogger and get real science responses. Wonderful way to increase scientific literacy.

This is incredibly silly.

Posted by: ERV | March 7, 2007 5:12 PM

There really is no bottom to "stupid", is there?

Posted by: Bill | March 7, 2007 8:18 PM

Wow. My guess is it won't take them long to regret that decision.

Posted by: Neurontic | March 8, 2007 11:08 AM

It's possible they're doing this because they're worried that having the papers on blogs could undercut Science magazine revenue. Still a stupid reason.

Posted by: David Bruggeman | March 8, 2007 1:21 PM

Let's see. More blogs linking to papers in Science means more traffic, and in the Web 3.1 world, more traffic means more money.

Yep. Sounds like a stupid reason to me.

Posted by: Blake Stacey | March 9, 2007 11:44 AM

I served on the advisory committee to the AAAS when Eurekalert! was established. The restrictions on access to embargoed material was set up in response to the input of science reporters from the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, etc., who argued that their publications would not consider the embargo system legitimate if the material was made available to people other than members of the working press. They pointed out that providing such material to other people increased the possibility of abuses such as insider stock trading. As a result, the AAAS adopted strict requirements for access. Of course, this was before the blogosphere arose. If bloggers feel that they should access to this kind of material, then they need to come up with a method that will prevent people whose primary interest is insider trading, etc., from gaining access.

Posted by: David Salisbury | March 9, 2007 3:10 PM