The blog reviewed here is ‘Significant Science‘. In the About section, we learn that the author is Hope Leman and is intending to cover topics such as Health 2.0, Medicine 2.0 and Science 2.0 in the blog.
Appearance and Design
There is a white background and a central pane containing the articles. The articles consist of black text on a white background with light blue headings. At the time of writing, each page consists of several articles and the reader must scroll down to reach the index. The index allows the reader to navigate the blog by month or category.
Content
The first article dated October 14th 2009 is a look at how social media such as twitter can be used to recruit subjects for research and Leman looks at a case study. A tremendous strength of Leman’s blog is that she takes the time to approach and interview people relevant to her main themes. So for instance, this post features an interview with Chris Tryzna from the MyClinicalTrials who explains how social media are being used in the recruitment of research subjects as well as discussing some of the broader aims of the website. There is another interesting interview here, this time with Jon Brassey about the trip database. There is a very interesting interview with e-patient Dave which includes a look at participatory medicine, the concept of involving patient communities in the process and this will undoubtedly be a very interesting area to follow. The subject of Open Science is the topic of discussion in this post which features an interview with Anthony Williams from ChemSpider, which is an open science project focusing on chemistry. I thought the methods used to overcome ‘linkrot’ were extremely interesting. So for instance, how do you deal with blog posts that have disappeared from the web but which you have linked to? Williams has an interesting solution. There is also another interesting interview here, this time with Cameron Neylon about open science and particularly open access. Incidentally there is a short video interview with Hope Leman here.
Conclusions
In conclusion, this is a young blog which contains relatively few articles. However the articles are of a very high quality and usually involve interviews with influential figures in the open science/health movement. There is a lot of very useful information geared to those with an interest in open science. Leman has a good sense of who the key players are in this emerging area and if past articles are anything to go by this is the blog to follow to keep a finger on the pulse of the open science movement.
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Podcast
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Disclaimer
The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.
