Ilona Miko, Managing Editor, Open Education
Twitter: @mikoartscience
Email: i.miko@us.nature.com
Can you tell us a bit about Scitable? Who hosts it and who is the intended audience?
Sure! Scitable is hosted by Nature Education, the educational division of NPG, which started publishing free digital content in 2009. Scitable is an online delivery system for short articles written by scientists and aimed at university students and faculty, alongside a robust social platform of user-initiated classrooms and discussion groups. One of the founding visions of Scitable and Nature Education, and something I care deeply about, is filling the gaps between the science research and education communities. This naturally connects science to daily life and relevance, and it also forces scientists to be good communicators (not easy!).
“We find that if we aim the content at university level, we actually get a broad spectrum of users, at the secondary school level and at the postgraduate level. Everyone needs explanations!”
Over the past 4 years we have grown our formal library content in genetics and cell biology, while also adding journalistic and informal content on a variety of science subjects. We find that if we aim the content at university level, we actually get a broad spectrum of users, at the secondary school level and at the postgraduate level. Everyone needs explanations! A lot of folks come to us through search engines, either because they don’t understand something they learned in class, or they heard something in the news they didn’t understand, like GMO or mitochondria or graphene or something.
What’s the news with the Scitable blogs? Haven’t they been running for several years already? What’s changed?
“We felt there was a need out there for a blog network that included secondary school students alongside university students as well as working science professionals.”
Yes, we debuted the blog network in 2010, hoping to offer more informal content alongside our articles and eBooks. Since then, the network has changed a bit to include both more senior and more junior voices, in parallel with our broadening user base. So we decided to adjust with that and re-launch the network this week to include a broader set of subjects that also strengthen the mentorship themes that we think characterize and distinguish our network. We felt there was a need out there for a blog network that included secondary school students alongside university students as well as working science professionals. I’m very proud that we can provide a platform for all voices in all stages of science curiosity and training. My hope is that there is some inspiration here for anyone who browses, no matter what their background or education level. Ultimately, our hope is to demystify some of the arcane stuff out there and add a personal touch to the communication of science that all ages can relate to. Science isn’t just for scientists!
Why have you decided to focus on the subject areas that you’ve chosen?
“…we just wanted to showcase the diversity of scientific disciplines with some good communicators.”
To put it simply, we set out to broaden the subject base beyond the basic life sciences or a biomed focus. There’s a tremendous amount of blogging energy out there in topics that are not biomedically-oriented, but we know that a lot of students in training don’t see much of this variety in their main media channels. It’s either men in white coats or astronomers. At the risk of sounding a bit obvious, we just wanted to showcase the diversity of scientific disciplines with some good communicators. Our new list does that by including several physics blogs, as well as oceanography and geology. Scientists come in all flavors.
But we also are offering some perspectives that we think are underrepresented in the science blogosphere. We have a passion for mentoring and we think it has a bad rap as boring, or is too often pedantic and lacking in sparkle. So in addition to the group blog models, we actually dedicated one of our blogs to mentoring, and have built a widely-trafficked women in science forum on the site as well. Mentoring comes in all flavors too.
Why have you chosen to host group blogs and not individual blogs?
“Peer thinking can often produce something more interesting than a single voice alone…”
It’s really just another way we think we can offer diversity in our content. We enjoy showcasing different communication styles on a subject, and we think that blogs have a special momentum when they come from a group or a pair. Peer thinking can often produce something more interesting than a single voice alone, simply through negotiating or brainstorming or even reading more broadly before writing, sort of like a hive mind emanating from a blog.
But it’s also a form of peer mentoring. Someone with trepidation about carrying their own blog can share those fears with another. On a more pedagogical level, we also like to think we are replicating successful models of peer cooperation that already exist in learning and teaching environments, (ones that we think work well in professional settings as well). Almost like a nonlinear model of assured success, the outcome often has greater value than the simple sum of its parts, etc…
What kind of content can we expect from now on?
“We think there are opportunities for mentorship within the network too, between younger and more seasoned bloggers.”
Sky’s the limit! More subject variety—I’d live to see some bloggers who are passionate about bioinformatics or chemistry–and we’d also like to deepen our presence of both younger and more senior voices. We have bloggers from five continents as of this week, but we’d like to work at getting a stronger multinational perspective on science. I’d also really like to get more secondary educators involved from all backgrounds and cultures. So many of them feel the research community is closed to them. I’ve heard from a lot of them that Scitable really builds a bridge for them. So we’re looking to make sure we can create a welcome community for users, but we’re also interested in strengthening cooperation between different blogs on our network. We think there are opportunities for mentorship within the network too, between younger and more seasoned bloggers.
Are you looking for guest contributors/teachers to give feedback etc?
Yes, we are always hungry for feedback. We have relied on it a lot these past few years, and I think it’s one of the reasons that Scitable is so well-used and widely-used. Email me!
Do you have a community manager for the site?
YES. We have a fantastic Community Manager, Khalil Cassimally. Khalil helped us launch the network in 2010, and has been a leader in our strategy these past few years as we have reshaped it. He and I worked together on this relaunch, and it’s been tremendous fun. I firmly believe that personalities drive successful leadership and Khalil’s is a great fit for this. He is optimistic, curious, and ambitious. We wouldn’t be here today launching 15 new voices into our network without his keen honing skills, motivation and organization. He gets it, our vision of making research discovery accessible and showcasing the delightful excitement (or fury) of it. Khalil is also a talented blogger, and he picks some great topics to write about on Labcoat Life. Some of them were so popular they almost broke the site…er…more than once.
How can we keep up to date with all the news from the Scitable blogs?
There are several ways. The twitter hashtag #scitable is a good way to track new posts, and if you have a favorite blog we also have RSS feeds available on each blog’s landing page. Our Nature Education Facebook page tracks new activity in the Scitable network.
Thanks OSAM, for helping us get the word out!
Peer mentors Naseem and Sam speak with other teens about starting your own blog.