Cognitive Daily

Introducing ResearchBlogging.org

Posted by Dave Munger on January 21, 2008
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I’m pleased to announce a new site that allows bloggers to not only show when they’re blogging about peer-reviewed research, but also to share that work with readers and bloggers around the world.

ResearchBlogging.org doesn’t just enable you to mark posts with our icon, it also collects those posts in one central location. Readers can then visit just one site to find all the posts on a topic, or browse through all of the blogosphere’s most thoughtful posts on peer-reviewed research.

Here’s how it works:

  • Bloggers — often experts in their field — find exciting new peer-reviewed research they’d like to share. They write thoughtful posts about the research for their blogs.
  • Bloggers register with us and use a simple one-line form to create a snippet of code to place in their posts. This snippet not only notifies our site about their post, it also creates a properly formatted research citation for their blog.
  • Our software automatically scans registered blogs for posts containing our code snippet. When it finds them, it indexes them and displays them on our front page — hundreds of posts from dozens of blogs (and soon to be many more), in one convenient place, organized by topic.
  • The quality of the posts listed on our site is monitored by the member bloggers. If a post doesn’t follow our guidelines, it is removed from our database. Borderline cases may be discussed in our forums.

The site isn’t yet perfect — consider this the beta version. But we’ve tested it extensively and found that it’s easy to use and works on a variety of blogging platforms, including wordpress, blogger, and movable type.

If you’re a blogger who writes about peer-reviewed research, you can register your blog today and quickly and easily share your work with the world. Whether or not you blog, bookmark the site today and visit often to find the best research blogging on the web.

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Comments

  1. #1 Abel Pharmboy
    January 21, 2008

    Thanks for all of your hard work on this, Dave. I look forward to using the new site.

  2. #2 Ben
    January 21, 2008

    Looks awesome! Having a bit of trouble registering, though…

  3. #3 Dave Munger
    January 21, 2008

    Ben,

    I can see your registration from this end, so you may have gotten a funky registration message, but things are actually working fine. This is beta software, and we’re constantly working to improve it, so keep the feedback coming!

  4. #4 Alun
    January 21, 2008

    I got things that looked like MySQL errors for both the registration and login, but a refresh shows I’m registered.

  5. #5 Ben
    January 21, 2008

    Oops, yep, just got a confirmation email. It was the weird registration confirmation on the site that threw me. Thanks!

  6. #6 Denuacous
    January 21, 2008

    There’s no RSS yet? I tried the rss link in Economics, and Computer Science. None returned RSS feed.

  7. #7 Dave Munger
    January 21, 2008

    Sorry, no RSS yet. It’s on our list, and we’ll get to it as soon as we can.

  8. #8 ian findlay
    January 21, 2008

    Duely noted, this could fullfill a long awaited need.

  9. #9 Johan
    January 21, 2008

    Looking great! However, having some problems registering and logging in, like everyone else.

  10. #10 Janne
    January 21, 2008

    Good idea. However, I’m not too hot on adding any “snippets of code” to my blog, and I don’t want to clutter the layout with badges and pieces of graphics. Is it possible to just ping the “Research Blogging” site with a link to the post without adding anything to the blog itself?

  11. #11 Dave Munger
    January 21, 2008

    The code snippets are invisible on your blog. All you’ll see is a formal research citation, which you can edit if need be to match the design of your blog. There is no need to include the badge or other icons.

    What’s in the code are tags that use the COinS metadata standard, which will not only enable your post to be aggregated by ResearchBlogging.org, but also to be indexed by libraries and other databases.

  12. #12 Janne
    January 21, 2008

    As I said, I greatly prefer not. But if it’s not possible, it’s ok (I don’t write many research-related posts anyway).

  13. #13 Ben
    January 22, 2008

    Janne, you can always use the invisible tags too. No badges or graphics to deal with.

  14. #14 Utbildning
    January 22, 2008

    If this is the Beta version when will the “Alpha” be released? Anyone who knows?

  15. #15 Dave Munger
    January 22, 2008

    Utbildning,

    We’re working to fix problems as quickly as possible, but since this is currently an all-volunteer project, we’re constrained by the available time of our volunteers. The best I can say is that a final version will be available soon.

  16. #16 Liz
    January 22, 2008

    You’ve launched a promising initiative and a wonderful service. I’ve just one question:
    Can websites that aren’t blogs but do post articles meeting all your guidelines for covering peer-reviewed research also register with ResearchBlogging.org? An example is my site, Current Results
    The articles there would be relevant additions to the Research Blogging database. It’s just that Current Results isn’t published on a blogging platform.