Bitácora científica

Para determinar la importancia de un artículo o “paper”, la comunidad científica se basa en el número de veces que este es citado en otros artículos. Para establecer dicha calificación se tienen controles específicos y estructurados por el conjunto de la comunidad académica internacional. Ante el determinante impacto de las bitácoras en línea, la revista Nature, una de las revistas especializadas más respetadas del mundo, hizo un ejercicio para determinar los blogs científicos más importantes.

En primer lugar fue necesario definir que sería considerado un blog científico – explica Declan Butler, autor del artículo. Se consideraron blog científicos aquellos que, hasta donde se pudo establecer, son realizados por investigadores profesionales vinculados a una institución y cuyo contenido habla del desarrollo del conocimiento y no de las travesuras de su gato.

Para conocer a los contendientes, Butler definió un listado compilado a partir de todas aquellas bitácoras conocidas por el personal de Nature y los blogs citados en ellas. Para determinar un índice de importancia se utilizó en gran medida el sistema de Technorati que, al igual que la comunidad académica, valora un blog por la cantidad sitios vinculados a él. Sin embargo existe el problema de excelentes sitios con una devota pero pequeña audiencia.

Este ejercicio terminó con una lista de los 5 blogs científicos más importantes, se les preguntó a los autores cual era la clave de su éxito. Sus respuestas se transcriben tal y como aparecen en la nota de nature :


http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula

Paul Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris, puts his top rank down to "tapping into the broader areas of liberal politics and atheism" and a rich vein of "resentment against the reactionary religious nature of American culture". Scientists can easily translate their expertise into blog posts, adds Myers. "Sometimes, I just summarize some basic concepts as I would in the classroom." But you are certain to fail if you write as if for a peer-reviewed journal. "It doesn't work on the web," says Myers. "A blog's more like the conversation you'd have at the bar after a scientific meeting."


http://www.pandasthumb.org

Being a group blog is key, says contributor Jack Krebs, president of Kansas Citizens for Science. "We have some of the most well-informed observers and critics of the 'intelligent design' and creationist movements." The nature of the topic helps too, he adds. "There is an interest, a hunger even, for thoughtful analysis of the issues related to evolution and creationism."

http://www.realclimate.org

Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist who blogs at RealClimate, puts its success down to the hot topic and expert contributors. It helps to have "a passion for explaining things as clearly as possible, and a hell of a lot of patience to deal with all those comments rolling in". Gavin Schmidt, at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, says the blog fills "a hunger for raw but accessible information" that goes deeper than newspaper articles, but is more easily understood than the scientific literature. "Magazines fill a void, but they can't react or interact as effectively as blogs."

http://cosmicvariance.com

Frequent posting of original content is crucial to building an audience, says Sean Carroll at Cosmic Variance, which is produced by five physicists. But taking "stances that are provocative and make people think" also helps. One needs to become the place to go for a subject, he says. Citing other blogs is a sure-fire way to get their notice and maybe a citation in return, he adds. But he cautions that citation counts and rankings can be a distraction. "It would be a shame if people worried about traffic and not about having a good blog."


http://scienceblogs.com/scientificactivist

Nick Anthis, who only began blogging in January, knows the reason for his site's swift rise to fame. During a political censorship row at NASA in February, Anthis was the first to reveal that a key official had lied about graduating from Texas A&M University. "Before I knew it, it had exploded into a major national news story and he resigned." After an initial spike in traffic, many stayed on as regular readers.