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. 2012;7(12):e50109.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050109. Epub 2012 Dec 12.

Research blogging: indexing and registering the change in science 2.0

Sibele Fausto  1 , Fabio A Machado, Luiz Fernando J Bento, Atila Iamarino, Tatiana R Nahas, David S Munger
Affiliations

Research blogging: indexing and registering the change in science 2.0

Sibele Fausto et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Erratum in

Abstract

Increasing public interest in science information in a digital and 2.0 science era promotes a dramatically, rapid and deep change in science itself. The emergence and expansion of new technologies and internet-based tools is leading to new means to improve scientific methodology and communication, assessment, promotion and certification. It allows methods of acquisition, manipulation and storage, generating vast quantities of data that can further facilitate the research process. It also improves access to scientific results through information sharing and discussion. Content previously restricted only to specialists is now available to a wider audience. This context requires new management systems to make scientific knowledge more accessible and useable, including new measures to evaluate the reach of scientific information. The new science and research quality measures are strongly related to the new online technologies and services based in social media. Tools such as blogs, social bookmarks and online reference managers, Twitter and others offer alternative, transparent and more comprehensive information about the active interest, usage and reach of scientific publications. Another of these new filters is the Research Blogging platform, which was created in 2007 and now has over 1,230 active blogs, with over 26,960 entries posted about peer-reviewed research on subjects ranging from Anthropology to Zoology. This study takes a closer look at RB, in order to get insights into its contribution to the rapidly changing landscape of scientific communication.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: co-authors Atila Iamarino, Luiz Bento and Tatiana R. Nahas are administrators for Portuguese version of Research Blogging, which is owned and operated by Seed Media Group, LLC (Seed). They are not employed and do not receive any payment for this work, as per Research Blogging policies. By the time of this paper submission, David S. Munger used to be an administrator at the English version of the site, but he is not related to Research Blogging anymore. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Research Blogging Posts over time.
RB posts indexed since its creation.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Post distribution by Research Blogging topic category.
Posts classified by self-assigned categories available within RB site.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Research Blogging post distribution by language.
English is supported since RB inception in 2007. The other languages were added gradually (German, August 2008; Spanish, May 2009; Portuguese, June 2009; Chinese, August 2009; Polish, April 2010; Italian, December 2010).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Research Blogging posts and citations.
Only posts citing peer-reviewed research from periodicals were considered.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Journal titles by subject areas.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Correlation matrix between RB counts and JCR metrics, depicting the magnitude of correlation between variables.
All non-significant correlations were set to zero.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Total article views per year.
Article views (in thousands) are represented according to citing posts at Research Blogging. Most recent articles have less time to accumulate views.
Figure 8
Figure 8. Relationship between RB Total Views and Citations.
The trend-line was estimated through exponential fitting between the count data through non-linear squares and the correlation was estimated through Spearman rank-based statistic ρ.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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