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

• Quit science

Now:
• “science outreach officer” for ERIBA
• Science‐journalist/communicator
• Twitter: @evateuling
• Blog: evateuling.blogspot.com

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://geekomdathetkan.wordpress.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…

Sending and receiving
• Twitter and blogging give room for discussion
• It is not one‐way communication


Exercises (workshop 1):
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

Holland is beautiful in the
Lecture ‘famous’ person: “Attending a lecture by Tom Kirkwood. summer.
After reading so much from him, I’m very interested in what he
will tell me today.”
Got introduced to John Rothwell, a
very big name in the field!
Mathematisation of biology

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!)

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

Exercises (workshop 2):
The rats that looked most exhausted after stereotactic
injection of 6‐OHDA in the brain, were totally fine the
next day
Interesting project meeting in Klinikum Oldenburg

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

#News, #Battle against Alzheimer: "US
Government sets out Alzheimer's plan" ‐ Paediatric physical therapy in infancy: from nightmare to
http://www.nature.com/news/us‐government‐ dream? A two-arm randomised control trial
sets‐out‐alzheimer‐s‐plan‐1.10688 The 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. Looking forward to attend the 18th Annual
Meeting of the Organization for Human
Brain Mapping next month in Beijing

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

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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