How would you explain or encourage a researcher to set up a blog? What benefits would you talk about?
If someone needed encouragement to start a blog they might be hesitant because they would see it as taking time away from ‘real’ work. I’d talk about the ways it assists with (not detracts from) research:
- It helps develop a habit of writing regularly
- It provides a space to explore new or work-in-progress ideas that perhaps aren’t ready to go into a formal piece. “Some academic bloggers develop refereed articles from writing that started life as a blog post.”
- It creates opportunity to get involved in a dynamic community where you can take part in discussions, and give and receive feedback much quicker than in traditional academic publishing. Also provides a forum to share practical ideas, tips, and news which can help with the research process. You can build a social network with others in your field and across other fields.
Please share any examples of research blogs that you have read.
I’ve only really looked into it just now, but there’s quite a large community around research blogging:
- www.researchblogging.org is a kind of meta-blog with an aim to “identify and aggregate academic blog posts about peer-reviewed research”.
- This list from The Guardian also gives an indication of some of the kinds of blogs that are out there.
23 Research Things 
thanks for this- some great lists and benefits for why a researcher would blog. Thanks! I do like the theme /look of this blog. have you blogged before/do you currently blog??
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sorry- also meant to say I like that list so you can narrow down by subject area
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Thanks Kate! I really like WordPress’ themes. I have tried a couple of times to start my own blog – I like the idea but I struggled to come up with regular & interesting content. Like was said in the “thing”, you need to have a strong idea/target audience/niche, otherwise you could be “putting the cart before the horse”.
I do use tumblr a bit, more as a “follower” than as a blogger. Because it’s so image/multimedia based there’s a big community of artists and graphic designers (an interest of mine), and some silly/just-for-fun blogs too. But I don’t think I’d recommend it for academic blogging.
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