Blogs for journal management
Join the current discussion on Blogs. Do you agree with answer A, B or C? And why?
- A. Blogs are a great for further building the community around a journal.
B. Blogs are just a fad and are not a replacement for formal discussions at conferences and poster sessions.
C. Blogs could be useful for specific editorial tasks and make the process much more dynamic.
Add your comment by clicking the ‘Write Comment’ link below. Please give your name and mail address. First time you contribute please also type your journal name in the comment box.
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August 29th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Despite this discussion being on the web for nearly a year, it is only now I have gotten around to looking at it! I fear this simple fact (surely not unique) pretty much answers the question. We editors simply do not have the time…
August 29th, 2006 at 10:28 am
I am not a blogger. However, intutitvely I would prefer C.
June 16th, 2006 at 1:54 am
Therre may be a purpose for blogs of people who ‘care’ about a discipinary area that a specific journal represents. But a better use would be to link editors across journals–eg. all Soc Sci journals’ editors. Blogs are a good idea as there is no other way for editors to link together. This Editors’ Forum seems not to work–I never get messages that have been sent by other Editors, and these invites to contribute occur very rarely. Only when I chose to post a comment t this one did I for the first time see a list of others’ messages. Guess I don’tr understand how this whole thing workds.
With blogs noone is going to censor what we write, unlike in the Editors Forum. BUT who is going to set up the blogs? It would not be another unpaid task i would take on.
Liz Hamp-Lyons
Journal of English for Academic Purposes
and
Assessing Writing: An International Journal
June 15th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
I guess I’m late to this party! The Journal of Chemical Health & Safety is not yet plugged into Elsevier’s AFP, so…..
H
March 24th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
In my opinion there’s something in A, B and C. I am not a great blogger myself, but that probably reflects my age (55) rather than anything else - younger people seem to do a lot of blogging. Therefore I think we’d better go with it if we want to keep/get the younger generation involved. There just is no quality control in blogging (other than self control), so clearly B has a point - but may not be really relevant: who said blogs would replace conferences? they just add something - possibly more contacts with researchers in poor third world countries whio can not afford much expensive travel and very expensive meeting attendance, for instance. I’m not sure where the blogs would fit exactly in the editorial process, though - I do not quite see how to use them in discussions. Maybe a blog site for a specific journal could be set up, asking for feed back from authors/reviewers on the overall review/editorial process?? then we could see whether anyone would actually submit something. I agree with people who say they just don’t have the time, though.
December 13th, 2005 at 1:46 am
I would imagine that most editors are far too busy to refer to Blogs, unless perhaps there is a particular burning issue under discussion. As an editor, I often feel that we have information overload and it is often difficult to identify the important issues from the chaff. Therefore, as a potential method of generating pages of uncensored information and unsolicited e-mails, I tend to favour option B
November 30th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
I have never used a blog, and I am not sure I even know what it is for. I thought it is a thing for kids, like a diary. I am not sure what their use could be for a journal editing, apart from recording things, that can be recorded otherwise.
November 29th, 2005 at 11:10 pm
I must say that I have not had the time to use blogs. I have read some and have noticed that blogs include a number of opinions some of which are not well-founded.
I cannot imagine having time to “manage” a blog but I can see that a blog properly used could be a nice tool for some specific editorial tasks or even to carry out a discussion on a particular article. Thus, I will select “C” in your list of questions.
November 28th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
I have not used blogs and do not intend to soon.
However I have seen and participated in email exchanges which get totally out of hand and lose track of the original problem, because of the many not clearly thought through answers that come up and throw the discussion off.
So I err on the safe side and choose answer “C”.
Should mention that I agree with most comments made by others.
November 28th, 2005 at 5:42 am
I have no experience with blogs but if I have to provide an answer, the safe one would be C.
Journal of Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics
November 27th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
The comments from other editors are most interesting and the majority reflect my own current opinion: I am still struggling to generate enough good “copy” to ensure that “Tuberculosis” is a top-class journal and I just do not have the time to engage in “blogging”, and cannot see how it will help my cause at this stage. However, I am prepared to change. I hope that blogging does not replace such as the very productive Editors Meeting we had in Boston on 2004.
November 25th, 2005 at 10:04 am
I have never used blogs. I have no comments for them.
November 25th, 2005 at 2:17 am
It is still necessary to discuss important issues face to face for old generations. We may start using Blogs for young generations as an intial try, not for serious discussions. Thus I prefer answer c.
Computer-Aided Design
November 24th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Blogs are not a real tool for scientific publications or education because it is an uncontrolled stream of information of which the quality is by no means controlled. It takes a lot of time and energy to digest all information and the selection of quality is ‘granted’ to the reader. In my opinion, blogs are a bad move because the amount of information the scientific community is exposed to will be increased unnecesserily. We need information reduction in quantity whereas quality should be kept at the highest level possible. Blogs do exactly the opposite
November 24th, 2005 at 9:36 am
I have no idea. Personally, I have never used blogs.
November 24th, 2005 at 4:40 am
I am skeptical of blogs because they are often just a stream of consciousness with less thought and wisdom than we need for improving scholarly publications. Such core-dumps have mostly little meaning and are not oriented toward problems.
I think that e-mail messages have a better chance of communicating worthwhile information and guidance.
This is not to say people don’t find some value in blogs. Some need to vent, others find satisfaction spending time and effort finding some good stuff in the midst of a lot of verbiage. Personally, I don’t have time for that!
Thus, I agree with most of the comments so far.
November 23rd, 2005 at 6:44 pm
My view on blogs follows most of previous 15 recorded comments: Choice C, at best. Blogs may serve a specific task at a point in time, but, for now, their general use would seem marginal at best. It was surely worth asking us, however.
November 23rd, 2005 at 4:59 pm
C is my answer, the interface of the blog is very important, ease of navigation, uploading, updating and exiting otherwise the blog is hard to use and will not be exploited to all its potential.
The Journal for which I work is the one on Visual Languages and Computing
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:37 pm
None of authors or readers of the two journals that I am managing editor of (SCP and JLAP) have asked for blogs until now. This is telling because both are in computer science where these novelties are always considered with sympathy in principle. The informal status of a flurry of blogs around a journal makes it hard to understand what one can achieve and I certainly don’t want to end up with long discussions concerning rejected papers on blogs that formally are linked to these journals.
In fact the communities in computer science build themselvss with other means and the journals exists by being recognised in these communities. Replacing the rules of operation of the two communities that I must deal with by adding additional structure might even prove to be counterproductive.
What I find more attractive is to complement the journal with a digital only version which allows other forms of text an also interactive contributions, which, however, has similar standards and procedures.
November 23rd, 2005 at 12:37 am
I have some experience with blogs and think they can be useful if their remit and goal is clear. For example in allowing readers to discuss breaking news, rather than waiting for responses to be published in the letters to editor section.
They provide another channel for communication betweem Editors and readers and of course, here links can be created and pictures can be pasted in to open up topics and broaden the discussion to a wider audience.
They certainly are not essential, but can be useful if you have specific goals in mind.
November 23rd, 2005 at 12:12 am
I think blogs could simply add to comments on a topic. An important note is that many experienced scientists do not do blogs. So maybe in 10 years time?
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:36 pm
Blogs are however highly subjective and often cannot offer specific problem resolution.
A. They can help to develop links but only if you have time to go onto them . As an academic support they probably offer little help - particularly as many editors work in a variety of ways .
B. Blogs may evolve into a more academic forum but are generally regarded as an informal and subjective chat room.
C. I don’t think blogs would be particularly useful for specific ed. tasks - having said that here I am writing away - oh good grief!
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:28 pm
Blogs are Ok as long as one has time to go on them!
November 22nd, 2005 at 6:45 pm
I have no opinion on blogs. I do not have any idea if they would be useful in journal management.
November 22nd, 2005 at 6:42 pm
Blogs, by in large, are useless. As news sources they have proven to be unreliable and often act as shields for people with limited interest in truth but with time on their hands. I cannot see their usefullness to editors of scientific journals since comments are often made “off the cuff” with little interest in their veracity or verifiability.
November 22nd, 2005 at 5:34 pm
I agree with A and C and in some ways with B - whether they are a fad or part of an evolutionary process in communication terms, time will tell. A Blog cannot replace more formal discussions but may complement them.
November 22nd, 2005 at 4:42 pm
c.
I wonder if it could be useful to Editorial Assistants who are using online submission system. Suggestion is to be given information about new features on EES, tips on using the system, get involved in discussions about the system. Also Editors who do their own editorial work could also be involved.
November 22nd, 2005 at 4:15 pm
I have no idea, time will tell. I personally, never read blogs but I might in the future.
November 22nd, 2005 at 3:27 pm
I’m rather sceptical on this issue and it really is a matter of our precious time. Despite having the will and interest, how many of us editors would really have time to do the a good job in monitoring them on the regular basis necessary for the idea to take off? Blogs offer enormous potential but the practicalities would need to be thought through.
November 22nd, 2005 at 3:25 pm
I have no experience with blogging and I see no need (yet) for me or my journal. Personal interaction is so much more effective than chatting or … blogging. I have more important tasks than chatting on the internet.
October 6th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
I already monitor too many blogs, and I would certainly not be willing to take the time myself to maintain one (and by “maintain”, I mean “supply content for”). Apart from news and announcements, I don’t really see the purpose of a blog for a journal, unless someone is willing to take the time to provide news and up to date and late-breaking content for the subject covered by the journal. That’a s lot of extra work. What would be very useful would be the provision of a current awareness rss feed to readers to send them tables of contents for new issues. Elsevier probably already does this, no?