blogging for scientists phdday050

(micro)Blogging for scientists

BCN PhD Day, May 30, 2012

Contents

• Introducing myself

• Why do I blog/use twitter?

• Examples of scientist blogs

• Blogging versus twitter

• Blogging versus journalism

• Why don’t you start a blog?

• Exercises

• Summary


Introducing myself

• MSc in molecular biology at Wageningen University in 2003

• PhD in molecular/neurobiology from Erasmus MC in 2008

• Postdoc at UMCG (neurogenetics, Ellen Nollen); 2009‐2011

• ~10 papers in peer‐reviewed journals

Now:

• “science outreach officer” for ERIBA

• Science‐journalist/communicator

• Twitter: @evateuling

• Blog: evateuling.blogspot.com

• Quit science


Social media

• Who is on Facebook?

• Who is on LinkedIn?

• Who has a blog?

• Who is on twitter?

• Any other social media?

• People have different reasons to blog/use twitter

• So why/when did I start blogging?


Why did I start blogging?• Annoyed by bad

media‐coverage of genetics

• Article “Genetic bullshit” published on Sciencepalooza

• www.sciencepalooza.nl

(by the way, we need new authors...)

Why did I start blogging?

http://www.pcdi.nl/community

Blogs about sports and science for triathlon club

Personal blog as portfolio and random writing

http://evateuling.blogspot.com/

A few examples of scientists‐blogs

• Two Dutch neuroscience‐PhD‐students

• A belgian PhD‐student in Delft

• A climate scientist

• Geekomdathetkan (a TUDelft scientist)

• Next scientist, about scientist 2.0

• Wetenschapper2.0 (similar, but in Dutch)


http://nerdoscience.blogspot.com/

http://brainteresting.org/

http://phdtalk.blogspot.com/

http://geekomdathetkan.wordpress.com/

http://www.nextscientist.com/

http://wetenschapper20.wordpress.com/

Some more interesting blogs to follow

Blogs that discuss general issues of the PhD life,

‐ The Thesis Whisperer

‐ PhD2Published.

Specific writing and reading problems:

‐ 3 Month Thesis

‐ Literature Review HQ.Study Hacks


Why don’t you start a blog?

• Most heard answers:– I don’t have time

– I write too slowly

– I have nothing special to tell

• My reply:– Blogging doesn’t take too much time – you don’t have to write

every day

– Writing for a blog is very different than writing a paper

– Blogging is more like sharing thoughts

– You are a scientists so you do have something special to tell!


Who would read my blog?

• Other PhD‐students and postdocs in your field– To learn about/from your

experiences– To read about lectures/conferences– To find out about novel techniques

• General public– To read about science that is not

covered in the general news and is easier to read than a scientific article

– To fullfill an inherent interest in science


What can I blog about?• This cool paper you read last week but is not interesting enough for

journal club

• The lecture of this great speaker that you attended yesterday

• Your experiments that finally work after months of struggling

• Your experiments that still not work after months of struggling

• The conference that you will attend/ are attending

• The lecture that you will give to students

• The tricks you use to write your paper

• That your paper is accepted

• Your nice workout at the gym after a long day in the lab

• ... basically anything ...


...but keep private and work at least a bit separate...

Microblogging/twitter• Twitter = microblogging:

• Share your thoughts in 140 characters

• Use hashtags (#) to address the topic

• Follow topics by using #hashtags– Like: #PhDchat

• Tweet specifically to people by using @– Like: great paper in PNAS today about evolution of

dinosaurs... https://pnas.link.com @dinofreak

• Use twitter to follow institutes/companies you are interested in (for example jobs)

– @academictransfer; @SfNTweets; ...

• Use twitter to announce a new blogpost– Remind your followers of an old blogpost that is

still/again interesting

And many more options…BCN PhD Day, May 30, 2012

Sending and receiving• Twitter and blogging give room for discussion

• It is not one‐way communication


Exercises (workshop 1):

Lecture ‘famous’ person: “Attending a lecture by Tom Kirkwood. After reading so much from him, I’m very interested in what he will tell me today.”

The challenges of behavioural research: how to design a response time task for elderly people (the variance in response times in young healthy adults is already huge!)

Mathematisation of biology

Do not use words like Importantly or Surprisingly in your paper (heard at the grants week, at the keynote of an editor of Nature)

Our lovecorner at the Nacht van Kunst en Wetenschap this Saturday

Advertisement to find participants

“Analyzing, analyzing, analyzing…Sitting whole day behind my computer is not my cup of tea, time for some action again!”

Holland is beautiful in the summer.

Got introduced to John Rothwell, a very big name in the field!

Exercises (workshop 2):

#News, #Battle against Alzheimer: "US Government sets out Alzheimer's plan" ‐http://www.nature.com/news/us‐government‐sets‐out‐alzheimer‐s‐plan‐1.10688

#Interesting paper, #Publication bias: "Publication bias hard to eliminate" ‐http://www.ntvg.nl/publicatie/einde‐aan‐selectieve‐publicatie‐nog‐niet‐zicht/volledig

Looking forward to attend the 18th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping next month in Beijing

Interesting project meeting in Klinikum Oldenburg

Paediatric physical therapy in infancy: from nightmare to dream? A two-arm randomised control trialThe study compared two types of intervention, how effective of therapy. I am curious whether it is necessary to ask for “the best” one to work with children, or we just need a mix-and-match as appropriate for each individual in a real clinic.

My last week's presentation in the seminar proved that practice makes perfect.

The 24th Annual Meeting of European Academy of Childhood Disability-EACD 2012, Istanbul Turkey. The big conference in the paediatric fields of the European continent but this year is somewhat under-expectation? Why?

The rats that looked most exhausted after stereotactic injection of 6‐OHDA in the brain, were totally fine the next day

The installation I am presenting at the art and science night this Saturday

Summary


Blogging versus journalism

Quoting James Coyne, speaker at BCN PhD‐day 2011:

“Can good marketing make up for bad research? Sadly, yes.”

Many papers are written with press releases and sound bites in mind

“Hype sells, sometimes more than substance, at least for a while,before the self‐correcting forces of science takes over.”

The chocolate‐makes‐you‐slim‐story


Blogging/tweeting for other scientists in/ outside your field

• Blog about your work, highly specific

• Report about conferences, meetings and lectures

• React on papers that you have read

• Announce your publications, talks and other achievements

• Blog about PhD‐life, struggles and achievements


Blogging/tweeting for the general public

• Explain your work in simple language

• Tell the story of your PhD

• Tell the story of being a scientists

• Write about research more generally (like a science journalist)


Science journalists

• They will read anything you write (as long as you write about things related to science)

• Blogging scientists are still scarce...


But does it help my research?

• YES it does.

• With a bit of help from your university and journalists, people will read your blog

• You will be invited to give (public) lectures, to write articles on other people’s blogs, to go to meetings, etc...

• You will get a lot of writing experience

• You will broaden your network

• You can discuss topics you are interested in with followers that you would never meet in real life

• And there are probably many more reasons


Questions?

• I will upload my presentation to SlideShare


blogging for scientists phdday050

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