A few months back I remember first hearing about an absolutely crazy idea proposed by Sb's Dave Munger; a website devoted to blog posts about peer-reviewed research. Ok, maybe it wasn't that out of the vein, but the concept has really taken off, and today the latest iteration of ResearchBlogging has been released.
The update is about more than a new webpage setup and some spiffy new colors, though. Amongst all the other neat features there is multiple language support, topic-specific RSS feeds, customizable blog bios, and the ability to flag posts that don't meet the site guidelines. Definitely do yourself a favor and check out the new site.
Although I haven't tackled a specific peer-reviewed paper in a bit, the website has encouraged me to try to keep up with the literature. Some of my own blog posts on peer-reviewed literature have featured beetles that munched on dinosaur bones, ancient amphibious pachyderms, what ground sloths could hear, and the problematic nature of Megalosaurus. I hope to be adding more to the list soon.
(And lest I forget, don't forget to say hello to the author of Sb's newest addition, Genetic Future.)
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I am fascinated by the possibility of blogging being part of the peer review process.
It's a logical next step to the preprint archive sites and maybe someday we'll have arXivBlog as well.
For some time there has been a desire for an alternative to for-profit journal publishing. This is a step in the right direction.
On the other hand, anonymity has been a central part of the peer review process and has benefits that we will want to retain. Anonymous blogging was recently discussed at SB and has its drawbacks.
Ideas stand on their merits vs folk should stand behind what they say.
Or if you'd rather;
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7284987/description.html