Alex Palazzo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Toronto.
Over the last month, many things have been happening in the world of scientific publishing. Nature is trying something new, and they are having a public debate about how to alter the review process. PLoS is pushing ahead with a new type of publishing platform, PLoS ONE. And they are blogging about it. Now Cell has started an online comment section. Similar to ArXiv.org that displays trackbacks, and to the suggestion left at Nature's peer review blog that articles should be publicly debate both before and after they have been published, Cell is providing a public posting area so that individuals can comment on published Cell articles. From Cell's homepage:
Cell launches a new feature inviting thoughtful comments from our readers on a highlighted article in each issue. Tell the community what you think about the new insights in the Zhang et al. paper. Does it relate in an interesting way to your own research? Do you have an idea for a provocative next question? Is there something more specific about the techniques you would like to know? Is there a particular experiment you want to know if they have done?
The journals are I guess trying to use the internet to their advantage ... but in the end the freeing up of information, through open access, will be the most important development (if it ever happens).
Comments
Well now, nobody can say that science bloggers are boring! They're in the new tech era too.
Posted by: Khalil A. Cassimally | June 21, 2006 3:28 PM
That's too bad that Cell is only allowing comments one one paper each issue. I was just reading an older Cell paper today that... well... raised more questions than it answered.
Posted by: Nick Anthis | June 21, 2006 6:29 PM
I imagine that they're trying it out. They don't want to open the floodgates just yet.
Posted by: apalazzo
| June 21, 2006 6:55 PM
I guess Cell did not want to be left out! Now the only question is, when are they going to start a blog?
Posted by: Acme Scientist | June 21, 2006 7:01 PM