17 November 2010
Has science blogging affected your career?
Posted by vivienne
The popularity of science blogging has exploded in recent years. But do blogging scientists risk their promotion prospects? Guardian blogger GrrlScientist mentioned at Science Online London 2010 in September that she thinks blogging may have affected her chances of a permanent academic position. She started blogging in 2004 and thinks opinions of blogs have probably changed since then. Some SciOnline delegates agreed.
I’ve been haunted by this bit of Science Online since September. I’ve now been commissioned to write an article about whether science blogging does affect early career scientists – positively or negatively. The article will give advice for using science blogging to boost your career and will give tips for stuff bloggers should avoid. I would love to hear people’s experiences in the comments section here or by email. I’m happy to talk in confidence and anonymously since I know this is a sensitive issue that not everyone might be prepared to discuss openly.
Please, please get in touch. I feel awareness needs raising about this and want to know how big an issue it really is for bloggers.
Vivienne’s blog covers the latest discoveries about how the Earth’s mountains, atmosphere, coasts, oceans, ice, deserts and rivers work. Partly it’s a news source for the geoscience that climate change forgot. The rest is a science exhibition for the outdoors — explaining what we know about our surroundings.
Lab Lemming said on 17 November 2010
Yesterday I submitted my first paper based on blog-induced interdisciplinary research. So ask in 9 months if it has helped…
Mark said on 17 November 2010
I was at solo10 and found this shocking as I am an early career researcher (writing up phd) with a big involvement in science blogging. I personally don’t agree, but I’ve just applied for my first grant and I suppose only the next 50 years will tell.
Brian Shiro said on 17 November 2010
Science blogging has opened doors and set into motion a cascade of events that have completely changed my life and the trajectory of my career for the better. To make a long story short, I have been able to pursue a number of projects and experiences of direct relevance to my ultimate goal of becoming an astronaut thanks to my blog. Note that I don’t work in academia currently and don’t live off soft money, so I’m not too concerned with the issue of how blogging affects my ability to get grants. However, what it does do for me is widen my network and establish a unique persona for me that establishes my niche in the fields I work within. I have even been thinking of writing a book about how much blogging has changed my life.
Kim Hannula said on 17 November 2010
Anne Jefferson, Pat Campbell, Suzanne Francks, and I had a question (or two?) that related a little to that question in our survey of women geoscientists who read (or write) blogs. We didn’t analyze the blog-writing part of our data, but my impression was that the respondents didn’t feel like blogging had affected their career, either positively or negatively.
(On the other hand, I’ve stopped blogging except on my department’s news blog, in part because of misgivings about blogging as a professional activity, and in part because I didn’t have time to do the science journalism type of blogging and keep up with all my work responsibilities. Did blogging affect my career? Well, for a while it helped me rediscover the excitement in part of my career, but I also had colleagues raise their eyebrows when they learned that I blogged. So I think the effect was mixed.)
John Freeland said on 17 November 2010
I think, for many individuals scientists are likely to encounter in their positions, especially those over a certain age, just the term “blog” is repulsive. The title “blogger,” like “booger,” isn’t very flattering, either. I vote for a different title.
Still, the need for scientists to communicate to general audiences couldn’t be greater (e.g., see Chris Mooney’s book about the war on science). The blogosphere is cheap, global, and accessible. That’s hard to beat.
mariana said on 17 November 2010
I’ve considered starting a science-based blog as it would likely give me a higher profile and more marketability in my field, as I think the views of bloggers is changing, at least among those who take the time to read science-based blogs (i.e. most people who would hire me).
GrrlScientist’s concern about blogging negatively affecting her chances of a professional academic job though are probably legitimate, as in blogger=bad. However, she can be her own enemy here. When she posts on religion she rants like a typical youtube poster. Strawmen arguments abound, unsupported blanket assertions, stereotyping, with no evidence that she’s spent even 5 minutes doing a little background research. Important distinctions completely elude her and from a single bizarre example she extrapolates to a very diverse global community.
IOW, she vents without knowledge, and in venting, reveals anger and bile. I admire Grrl for many things and have followed her ups and downs with empathy (both sadness and joy). But even I would be reluctant to hire someone who vents without regard as to whether or not she’s factually right, or whether or not her critical thinking skills are working, as a professor/teacher/academic researcher.
Michael Blume said on 17 November 2010
Some years ago, I started a German science blog about my field of study, evolutionary studies on religion (“Natur des Glaubens”). Recently, I added an English one (“Biology of Religion”).
Although started as a hobby, many colleagues, journalists and publishers took note and contacted me, enhancing the outreach of my work and colleague’s network. I have been invited to lectures and conferences, interviews and book chapters. What’s more, I have been able to advertise some good studies and books from others, adding to the field. All of these positive effects improved after I was invited into a professional community of science bloggers (scilogs), which seems to imply more trustworthiness than “mere” private blogs.
In sum, I would say that the idea of science blogging has been among the very best starting points these last years.
Coturnix said on 17 November 2010
Blogging certainly helped my career….outside of academia. Grrrl’s experience is also quite old, several years old, and I think that the times have changed for the better. I am aware of a number of examples of people who got collaborations, publications, talk-invites, book deals and even jobs due to their online activity.
Aaron Rowe said on 18 November 2010
Blogging has helped my career in a myriad of ways.
John Hawks said on 19 November 2010
There are a couple of sessions of relevance to this at ScienceOnline2011. I’m helping to moderate one of them, and I’m organizing my thoughts about this very question!
alice said on 19 November 2010
It’s always hard to spot where it’s disadvantaged people, because people will rarely be explicit.
This goes for any sort of media work though, and there is a long history to it. I wasn’t shocked to hear it at Solo (though obviously it is sad to hear).
It is, however, easy to find examples of how it has benefited peoples’ careers – either to facilitate a shift into writing professionally or as a way of being a more successful academic. I have my own examples of 6 months of blogging – I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve made as many (useful) productions with people inside my field/ area of interest through blogging as outside. I may well have also annoyed collegaues too though (they just haven’t told me).
Lisa said on 19 November 2010
Blogging has really helped me! I work for a biomedical publishing company as an editorial assistant, and though publish scientific research manuscripts, my role is largely administrative so I don’t get to actually engage too often with the “science”. I started blogging for a small environmental science website (which sadly never really got off the ground), but posted the link to one of my posts on my Facebook page. The post was was seen by a girl at work in the PR department, who showed her boss, who asked me to start writing press releases for the company. It’s completely snowballed and now, as well as writing press releases, I’m also on the company blogging team, have been made editor of the staff magazine and have set up my own business (which I run in the evenings and on weekends) that earns me a pretty healthy supplementary income as a freelance science writer and research manuscript editor! Not bad, eh?
Lisa said on 19 November 2010
Bah, insert “we” between “though” and “publish” on line two. I’m a very good copyeditor, promise…!
steffi suhr said on 19 November 2010
I only started blogging in 2008 and, in retrospect, seem to have gotten involved in the science blogging scene with an unexpected vengeance. I’ve made many good friends and had fantastic moments, but have also seen some of the worst on offer in the science blogosphere (ignorance, flaming, indiscriminate allegations, etc… – I did hate that bit).
Blogging has changed me (or maybe just brought out some aspects of my personality more – which may be the same thing). It has not affected my career directly, but it has totally affected my outlook: I actually think blogging has made me (even more) confident (than maybe I already was).
I mentioned my – sadly currently abandoned – blog in the interview for my current job, and it hasn’t harmed me: there was actually a slightly positive reaction, even though it wasn’t relevant for the position at all. But for the final ironic twist: I am currently not blogging because I fear it may affect my further career prospects..!
Callan said on 19 November 2010
I think it’s been great for me — opened up a bunch of opportunities, including a new research project on the paleomagnetism of the Catoctin Formation in Virginia and Maryland, being selected as a Fine Fellow (recipient of a Gigapan robot camera + training by the Fine Outreach For Science), and the honor of being invited by the AGU to have them host my blog. It’s an auto-catalyzing feedback loop, where cool stuff leads to opportunities, which leads to other cool stuff, which leads to more opportunities. Hard to keep up with it all, in fact. I’d imagine there are some out there who would shun me because I blog, but I think they’re few and far between. Very interested to hear your thoughts on this as they develop.
Silver Fox said on 20 November 2010
Blogging has probably not affected my career one way or the other, but AFAIK only a few colleagues really know about my blogging, and fewer still read my blog. I mostly can’t blog about my work because of confidentiality issues, so blog about geology I see while traveling and stories from past work. I also don’t blog about where I live (except without location info) because then the random person would know where I work, and I don’t blog specifically about exactly where I work. I use a psuedonym, partly to protect location info and also because my other half isn’t comfortable with location and specifics being known or tied to me/us. I do, however, blog as though anyone might be able to tell who I am, so don’t get into ranting about work issues, except rarely in very general ways. Many bloggers know who I am or have met me at meetups, etc. One person I don’t know guessed who I am from reading the blog and approached me at a national industry meeting (no downside from that “encounter”).
Blogging has allowed me to express my creativity in ways I don’t do at work, alleviating times when what I do has been somewhat repetitive. It’s also connected me to a world outside my little subpart of the geological fields, and I’ve formed connections to people in other science fields and to women scientists in general. These benefits go beyond the effect (or non-effect) on my career; benefits down the line may yet still materialize.
I think this issue is usually raised while considering people in academia who, overall, have considerably more freedom (something called academic freedom). I doubt if blanket advice could apply much to people in the mining industry, but am looking forward to hear what you have to say.
P.S. I really miss Kim’s blogging.
Brian Romans said on 21 November 2010
Hard to say if blogging has affected career. That is, would it be different had I not been blogging the past 4 years? Probably not. But, like many have mentioned above, it has expanded my network of people significantly — a network that I will end up doing research with in one form or another at some point in the future.
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