Blogging about

The academic world doesn't tend to value blogging as much as it does formally peer-reviewed publications. In the past, this has been justifiable. However, as a growing number of academics, many highly respected by their peers, migrate away from the closed journal system and refuse to dance any longer to the old tune, greater numbers will be publishing not only in open access journals, but also on blogs. I have written about this previously, but need to re-emphasise the true value of blogging. Here are four reasons why the academic community should revise its collective opinion about blogging.

Blogging is an excellent medium for professionals to use to crystallise their thinking. When I write down my thoughts, whether on paper, or direct to the text box on this blog, I begin to refine my thinking. Before I write down my ideas they tend to be inchoate and not particularly lucid. Once my ideas have been laid down on the page, I am then free to elaborate, edit, revise and refine. I can also save the work to come back to later when I have thought some more about what I'm trying to articulate. Although this in itself is value enough, there are many other benefits for academic bloggers.

Blogging also offers authors a potentially worldwide audience. Some blogs have a greater following than mainstream newspapers or established media sites. The blog you are now reading regularly attracts an average of 50,000 hits each calendar month. Star bloggers can exert a certain amount of influence if they have the audience. Yesterday I argued that most closed academic journals have a limited readership. I know, academic publishing has never really been about how many people read your work, it's usually more to do with the kudos gained from publishing in an elite journal. And that's exactly what is so badly wrong with the current academic publishing system. Publications are for the public. We should all make our work more freely and widely available for our peers to read. We should also make our work available to the interested laypeople out there who may not have the academic qualifications, but do have the interest and the passion for the subject. Blogging is an ideal popularist method for making ideas and research accessible for all.

Thirdly, blogging is a very powerful dialogic tool. Important ideas should be open to challenge and debate. Closed journals, with the best will in the world, can only ever provide a contrived, time-shifted debate on any given subject. Blogs are different, because blogs are virtually instantaneous. Once a post has been published, anyone can read it and quickly respond, sending their comments directly to the blog while their ideas are still hot. Many a valuable debate has already been had on blogs, with a simple post as the stimulus for valuable dialogue across a community of practice.

Finally, anyone can start a blog, share their ideas and build a community of interest around their subject. It takes a little time, effort and commitment, but the rewards can be extraordinary. So, what will you be blogging about?


Blogging about by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.