Why I blog instead of writing papers @rdmpage http://iphylo.blogspot.com
May 10, 2015
Why I blog instead of writing papers
@rdmpage
http://iphylo.blogspot.com
Blogging
Blogging
Why blog?
Rants, raves (and occasionally considered opinions) on phyloinformatics, taxonomy, and biodiversity informatics. For more ranty and less considered opinions, see my Twitter feed.
What sort of things do I blog about?
Rants
Reviews
Experiments
Grant proposals
NERC said NO
Analyses
Dark taxa
http://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/dark-taxa-genbank-in-post-taxonomic.html
Mammals in GenBank
Proper Linnaean names
Aus sp.
Mammals
Proper Linnaean names
Aus sp.
“Invertebrates”
BOLD
Is this a problem?
It’s the norm for Bacteria
Why blog?
Déjà vu
@cboettig
http://www.carlboettiger.info/2012/09/28/Welcome-to-my-lab-notebook.html
Immediate feedback
(great if you are a shy attention seeker)
Blogs can lead to conversations
“Dark taxa” conversation 68 comments
Isn’t it vanity publishing?
Of course it is!
Isn’t any publishing?
Is your blog any good?
Does it get cited?
Citations to “dark taxa” blog post
An update on DNA barcoding: low species coverage and numerous unidentified sequenceshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00408.x
No name, no game http://dx.doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2012.10
Ramping up biodiversity discovery via online quantum contributions http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.10.010
Applications of Natural Language Processing in Biodiversity Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/391574
https://twitter.com/dpsspiders/status/281094052072542208
What do I want for Christmas?
DOIs for my blog posts
What about peer review?
Watson and Crick 1953
Not peer reviewed
Peer review as filter
Physical and/or economic limits on how big a journal can be
Accept for publication
Submitted for publication
Filter, then publish
Peer review as filter
Physical and/or economic limits on how big a journal can be
Accept for publication
Submitted for publication
…publish, then filter
Attention filter
Peer-review doesn’t guarantee science is correct
NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2 [2010], to discuss an
astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus
Wolfe-Simon et al. 2010Science
doi:10.1126/science.1197258
@RosieRedfield
(University of British Columbia)
Lots of flim-flam, but very little reliable information … If this data was presented by a PhD student at their committee meeting, I'd send them back to the bench to do more cleanup and controls.
http://rrresearch.fieldofscience.com/2010/12/arsenic-associated-bacteria-nasas.html
https://twitter.com/ironlisa/statuses/11579028288839680
NASA DID NOT HYPE anything – others did. Credible media organizations have not questioned NASA about any text. Bloggers and social media have.
NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Absence of Detectable Arsenate in DNA from Arsenate-Grown GFAJ-1 Cells
Reaves et al. July 2012
Sciencedoi:10.1126/science.1219861
Rebuttal in peer-reviewed literature
but released as preprint…
arXiv:1201.6643
…and initial concerns raised on blog
What’s next?
Science as a process will be open
figshare.com
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.92668
Everything of interest will be citable(papers, data, figures, blogs)
http://www.altmetric.com/
http://impactstory.org/
… and that is why I blog instead of writing papers