Scientific Blogging Goes Into Beta Testing

ION Publications has announced that its online science community, scientificblogging.com, has gone into private beta. The Scientific Blogging community will bring together world-class scientists from universities and the private sector, science writers, science journalists, amateur scientists, science philosophers and everyone who wants to read about and discuss science.

"There are a lot of science sites out there," said Hank Campbell, CEO, "but the more we read the more we realized that most science sites were primarily interested in politics or they were narrowly focused. We contacted some scientists we already knew, and then more contacted us, and we found they wanted a place to write where they weren't limited by space considerations or political agendas and could still reach a general audience. So we decided we had to create the site we wanted to read. I know that most scientists love to talk about their work outside their specialty and they like to have their efforts recognized by the public."

Unlike other science sites, Scientific Blogging will not only have featured scientists but will also allow science writers from all over the world to have their own columns - and get paid to blog. The writers will get to keep the bulk of any advertising revenue their columns generate.

"There are some terrific scientists writing out there who aren't reaching a large reader base yet - we're going to expose them to a much larger audience. Since they get to keep most of the revenue they generate we have no doubt they will write quality articles."

The front page has main categories like Physical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Biology, Neurosciences, Medicine and Culture. Beneath those, there are an unlimited number of sub-categories writers can create. New writers will have a chance to build an audience by appearing on the front page of the site and remaining there as their articles gain in popularity. There is also a full author index where all writers will be listed.

The only limitation, said Campbell, is the articles have to be about science and a column must contain full articles - no advertisements or teasers that just link to a homepage. To ensure open discourse, anonymous accounts are not allowed during the beta phase. "We are building a community and we want to make it a fun place where we all learn some things. All we ask is that people respect others and share that concept. We have no size or posting frequency limitations and we don't edit the content."

Scientific Blogging will allow some users to create accounts now to test the engine and comment on the interface. Interested scientists should visit the hompeage. "If you're writing about science now and would like to expand your audience, come over and take a look," said Campbell.