A Blog with a Mission
Dear readers,
This blog has one goal. To conduct and publish original research for scholarly communication. Despite the efforts of well spoken academic librarians, like Eric Schnell's The Medium is the Message, blogs do not appear to have reached their potential as forms of scholarly communication. In a bibliometric analysis of the past ten years for three major library journals, I found no change in the frequency of reference of blogs (or gray literature). If interested, please view my term paper, Can Blogs Become Scholarly Journals? It is from this paper that I have started this "experiment". I feel that the reason that blogs have not had as much scholarly presence as many other formats, like journals, is because of their lack of peer review and ease of creation. As to the lack of peer review, that seems to be something that can be readily done to any particular blog, but the ease of creation is the primary issue. Ease of creation is the blog's greatest strength and weakness. The obvious risk is that it may not be a reliable information source because anyone can create a blog, but on the other hand, blogs are inexpensive (free) and easy to create.
An effort has been made to reign in the overflow of blogging, by creating the Media Bloggers Association, which among other things, recognizes members that represent transparency and journalistic integrity by presenting its members with credentials. Additionally, a site called, Research Blogging, also accredits blogs that utilize peer-reviewed articles and information in their content. Readers of research blogging will know a research blogging article by the presence of an icon (a green page with a check in it). While both these associations review blogs, they still are not the embodiment of peer review or original research (however, there is no shortage of original academic thought).
This blog and any blog, like most ethnographies, is an experimental form. I am interested in trying to produce a quality form of scholarly communication with original research, and perhaps eventually, a form of peer review. What I find particularly powerful about blogs is their continuity in communication. While this project is in its nascence, the helpful input and guiding hand of its readers will help it continually improve its quality. It is rare to have such a dynamic in scholarly communication, where one can publish information and others can continue to contribute to a communication as one body of work. A scholarly blog, by rights, may never truly end. I look forward to this effort and hope you will, too.
This blog has one goal. To conduct and publish original research for scholarly communication. Despite the efforts of well spoken academic librarians, like Eric Schnell's The Medium is the Message, blogs do not appear to have reached their potential as forms of scholarly communication. In a bibliometric analysis of the past ten years for three major library journals, I found no change in the frequency of reference of blogs (or gray literature). If interested, please view my term paper, Can Blogs Become Scholarly Journals? It is from this paper that I have started this "experiment". I feel that the reason that blogs have not had as much scholarly presence as many other formats, like journals, is because of their lack of peer review and ease of creation. As to the lack of peer review, that seems to be something that can be readily done to any particular blog, but the ease of creation is the primary issue. Ease of creation is the blog's greatest strength and weakness. The obvious risk is that it may not be a reliable information source because anyone can create a blog, but on the other hand, blogs are inexpensive (free) and easy to create.
An effort has been made to reign in the overflow of blogging, by creating the Media Bloggers Association, which among other things, recognizes members that represent transparency and journalistic integrity by presenting its members with credentials. Additionally, a site called, Research Blogging, also accredits blogs that utilize peer-reviewed articles and information in their content. Readers of research blogging will know a research blogging article by the presence of an icon (a green page with a check in it). While both these associations review blogs, they still are not the embodiment of peer review or original research (however, there is no shortage of original academic thought).
This blog and any blog, like most ethnographies, is an experimental form. I am interested in trying to produce a quality form of scholarly communication with original research, and perhaps eventually, a form of peer review. What I find particularly powerful about blogs is their continuity in communication. While this project is in its nascence, the helpful input and guiding hand of its readers will help it continually improve its quality. It is rare to have such a dynamic in scholarly communication, where one can publish information and others can continue to contribute to a communication as one body of work. A scholarly blog, by rights, may never truly end. I look forward to this effort and hope you will, too.
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