Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Blog-post as a scientific reference


I have, so far, published five scientific papers and each has been cited a few times by other researchers in the field.

But this is something very new and unusual. Biological Procedures Online is an online open-source journal (something like PLoS, but more narrowly thematically focused). Recently, this journal published an excellent paper on methodology (and the underlying reasoning) of circadian clock researh: A guideline for analyzing circadian wheel-running behavior in rodents under different lighting conditions by Corinne Jud, Isabelle Schmutz, Gabriele Hampp, Henrik Oster and Urs Albrecht.

What is interesting is that Reference #16 is not to a peer-reviewed paper, or a published review, nor even a book, but to a blog post. It is this post I've written a few months ago on Circadiana.

How cool is that? Also, how new is that? Are you aware of another paper citing a blog-post? Have any of your blog posts ever been cited in a scientific paper? I'd like to know.

What does it all mean, i.e., how does that pertain to the way science will be done and reported in the near future? How do you feel about it?

I am wondering how many people in my field read Circadiana. One of the authors, at least, does, or the reference would have never appeared in the paper. How is that going to affect my chances of getting a decent job in the Academia? I have not published much lately (luckily a co-authored paper came out recently). I missed the last meeting of the Society. I have no feel for the breadth of acquantance of the field with my blog. I am dragging my feet finishing the Dissertation. Can my blog help me overcome the "time-hole" in my CV?

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 1:13 PM | permalink | (3 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink