Connected researcher @ Bath

For one thing, the people who were talking on blogs and Twitter were not in their pajamas. Many of them were in lab coats. They were practicing scientists who wanted to have an open debate.

Post-publication peer review—and open science in general—is attracting a growing number of followers in the scientific community. But some critics have argued that it's been more successful in theory than in practice. The #arseniclife affair is the one of the first cases in which the scientific community openly vetted a high-profile paper, and influenced how the public at large thought about it.

In order to develop my skills I did at times attempt to ‘reinvent the wheel’ which I admit now was not necessary as the majority of the applications already exist in the most user-friendly form. The question is knowing how to use them effectively.

As Cann pointed out when I talked to him, it is very difficult to appreciate the benefits of using social media unless you try it out, and use it long enough to see a return on your investment.

That said, there are costs to not using social media too. The best way to decide what works for you is to try it, be prepared to invest a little, and judge the outcome for yourself.

I certainly think long and hard about what I write on this blog, because with between 1000-2000 views per day, and a stream of comments coming in from those who either agree or disagree with my views, I sure feel as though I am being peer reviewed.

They have credibility in a different sense to peer reviewed journal articles.

One final word: We need to remember that professionals built the Titanic, but an amateur built the Ark. It's not always about expertise - sometimes it's about passion.