Commenting temporarily closed
By Dave Munger | August 26, 2008
Commenting is temporarily closed on this blog while we move the blog to a new server.
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Publicity for v2.0 of ResearchBlogging.org
By Dave Munger | August 19, 2008
As we approach the official launch of ResearchBlogging.org v2.0, we're planning on publicizing the site in a big way.
As you may know, Seed Media Group is generously providing developers, design, and project management assistance for this project, and we expect to have their support in publicizing the site. But perhaps more important from a publicity perspective is grassroots support from the bloggers who participate in the site. Participating bloggers in ResearchBlogging.org reach literally millions of readers every month. If all the participants make mention of the new site when it goes live, we should be able to make a splash that's noticed not just among science blogs, but throughout the entire blogosphere. I'll have more about how individuals can contribute to publicizing the site soon.
In the meantime, we would also like to build interest in our story within the mainstream media. We're tapping out our rolodexes for contacts in the media to push this story, but we'd also be grateful if users could suggest additional media contacts. If you've got an editor or reporter's name and phone number or email address (not just "info@nytimes.com"), I'd very much appreciate it if your could forward that information along to me. Send me an email (remove dashes) with your name (so I can mention you when I contact them), and I'll take it from there.
Do you have any other ideas about how to publicize the site? Let us know in the comments.
With your help, we can make ResearchBlogging.org garner an audience that is orders of magnitude larger than we currently reach!
Topics: News | 4 Comments »
Registration temporarily closed
By Dave Munger | July 25, 2008
We have now closed registration for ResearchBlogging.org for at least a few weeks while we upgrade our system.
If you have a current registration pending, it will still be processed, but we are no longer accepting new registrations. If you don't hear from us about your registration within the next few days, you might want to contact us to see if there is a problem with your account.
You can use this link (remove dashes) to email the site administrators.
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Last chance to register with ResearchBlogging.org v1.0
By Dave Munger | July 24, 2008
Tomorrow morning we will be closing registration with ResearchBlogging.org. If you've been putting off registering, now is your last chance!
As we continue to work on v2.0 of the site, closing registration will ensure that everyone's data is properly transmitted to the new site. Of course, when the new site is launched, you will be able to register again.
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New ResearchBlogging icons!
By Dave Munger | July 23, 2008
In preparation for the launch of version 2.0 of ResearchBlogging.org, we've redesigned the icons that you may use to indicate you're blogging about peer-reviewed research.
Starting tomorrow, we will be replacing the old icons with icons that match our new site design. The icons are inspired by Uriel Klieger's original winning icon, but have been simplified so they work in more different contexts.
Here are the icons:
If you have used our citation generator to create the link to our icon, you shouldn't have to do anything -- the icons will be automatically replaced on your site. They are the same size as the old icons, so they should not affect your site design.
We hope you like these new icons. We're getting very close to the launch of our new site -- this is just the beginning!
One note: these are temporary placeholder icons. The final icons on the new site will be slightly different, so it's probably not a good idea to spend a lot of time tweaking your site to accommodate these icons (and we hope you don't have to!).
Topics: Administration | 8 Comments »
New URL for blog
By Dave Munger | July 12, 2008
The domain name bpr3.org is going to expire within the next month, so we're moving this blog to a new address, researchblogging.org/blog. Please update your bookmarks.
Now that we've got a new address, should the blog have a new name? Suggestions are welcome.
Topics: Administration | 5 Comments »
How many topics should blogs register for?
By Dave Munger | July 8, 2008
Things are really starting to take shape on version 2.0 of ResearchBlogging.org -- we're to the point of wrapping up loose ends and beginning testing. I think you're really going to like how this new site works -- it will be worth the wait!
But there's one issue we'd like your help with. We've been having an internal debate about how blogs should be registered. One school of thought suggests that when a blog is registered, each topic and subtopic blogged about should be listed. So, for example, if you're primarily a botanist, but you also blog about global warming, evolution, and the philosophy of science, then you should register for Biology, Geosciences, and Philosophy as your blog topics, and Botany, Evolutionary Biology, Climate Science, and Philosophy of Science as subtopics.
The problem with this is as follows. The way the site will work is that every time you make a blog post you'll create a citation as before. But the new citation generator will allow you to use custom topics for each post. That way your Botany posts won't also be labeled Climate Science (unless your post actually covers both subtopics). But if you've registered with three primary topics and four subtopics, you'd have to unselect most those options for every Botany post, even though that's what you blog about 90 percent of the time.
One solution to this problem would be to only allow bloggers to register one topic and subtopic for their blog. Then the default when creating a citation would be their most commonly-blogged topic and subtopic, and a blogger would only have to change the topics when she made a post about something farther afield from her usual posts, or when a post was truly cross-disciplinary.
Obviously there are drawbacks to this as well. What if a blog is interdisciplinary most of the time? Wouldn't it make sense to default to the several subtopics covered in most of that blog's posts?
A third possible solution is to suggest that bloggers only register a single topic and subtopic when they sign up with ResearchBlogging.org, but give them the option to register several if they desire.
So, we thought we'd put the question up to our users. What do you think? Or do you have another idea about how a blog should be registered? Let us know in the comments!
Topics: Administration | 8 Comments »
Forums closed
By Dave Munger | July 3, 2008
I've decided to close the ResearchBlogging.org forums. They were never especially active and they required a significant amount of maintenance. However, in case anyone would like to see the forums return, I thought I'd put up a post where people can discuss plans for doing that.
If there is significant interest, I can play some role in the resurrection of the forums, but others in the ResearchBlogging.org community will also need to step forward and assist with the project.
Topics: Administration | 3 Comments »
Help generate the initial list of subtopics for v.2 of ResearchBlogging.org
By Dave Munger | June 25, 2008
Believe it or not, we're still working hard on getting the next version of ResearchBlogging.org ready to go. I know this is taking a long time, but since we have a (semi) working system right now, we really want to get this right. It shouldn't be too much longer. A few weeks ago we settled on a new list of major topics for the site. Just to remind you, here they are:
Anthropology
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Clinical Research
Computer Science
Engineering
Geosciences
Health
Mathematics
Neuroscience
Philosophy
Physics
Psychology
Social Science
Research / Scholarship
Other
Now we'd like to generate the subtopics associated with each topic. Users will be allowed to generate their own custom subtopics as well, but we'd prefer for everyone to choose from a finite set of subtopics, so that the subtopics actually describe meaningful categories (and have more than one item in them!). With that in mind, below is a list of possible subtopics. Please use the comments to let us know if you think these are appropriate, and if you'd like to see additional subtopics or refine some of the existing ones.
Topics: Administration | 56 Comments »
Still having trouble getting your posts aggregated?
By Dave Munger | June 10, 2008
There are still some bloggers who have registered with ResearchBlogging.org and followed our guidelines and instructions, but don't see their posts on our site.
Some bloggers have contacted me and I've worked with them to get posts aggregated, and even then haven't had success. The main problem is that we're currently devoting most of our programming resources to the new version of our site.
We'd like to make sure that everyone's blog works in the new system, so if you've written posts that haven't been aggregated properly by ResearchBlogging.org, please let us know by posting a link (to the post itself, not to your blog main page) in the comments section of this thread. We'll test your posts on our new system and make sure everything's working perfectly before we go live.
Thanks!
Topics: Administration | 36 Comments »