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. 2012;7(5):e35869.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035869. Epub 2012 May 11.

Research blogs and the discussion of scholarly information

Hadas Shema  1 , Judit Bar-Ilan, Mike Thelwall
Affiliations

Research blogs and the discussion of scholarly information

Hadas Shema et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

The research blog has become a popular mechanism for the quick discussion of scholarly information. However, unlike peer-reviewed journals, the characteristics of this form of scientific discourse are not well understood, for example in terms of the spread of blogger levels of education, gender and institutional affiliations. In this paper we fill this gap by analyzing a sample of blog posts discussing science via an aggregator called ResearchBlogging.org (RB). ResearchBlogging.org aggregates posts based on peer-reviewed research and allows bloggers to cite their sources in a scholarly manner. We studied the bloggers, blog posts and referenced journals of bloggers who posted at least 20 items. We found that RB bloggers show a preference for papers from high-impact journals and blog mostly about research in the life and behavioral sciences. The most frequently referenced journal sources in the sample were: Science, Nature, PNAS and PLoS One. Most of the bloggers in our sample had active Twitter accounts connected with their blogs, and at least 90% of these accounts connect to at least one other RB-related Twitter account. The average RB blogger in our sample is male, either a graduate student or has been awarded a PhD and blogs under his own name.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Distribution of gender among bloggers.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Blogs and Twitter accounts.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Twitter interconnections – followers.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Distribution of bloggers’ education levels.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Affiliation with an academic institute.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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