There will be so many interesting sessions at the upcoming ScienceOnline conference (February 27 – March 1, 2014 in Raleigh, NC – USA) that it is going to be difficult to choose which sessions to attend, because one will invariably miss out on concurrent sessions. If you are not too exhausted, please attend one of the last sessions of the conference: Upholding standards in scientific blogs (Session 10B, #scioStandards).

I will be facilitating the discussion at this session, which will take place at noon on Saturday, March 1, just before the final session of the conference. The title of the session is rather vague, and the purpose of the session is for attendees to exchange their views on whether we can agree on certain scientific and journalistic standards for science blogging.

Individual science bloggers have very different professional backgrounds and they also write for a rather diverse audience. Some bloggers are part of larger networks, others host a blog on their own personal website. Some are paid, others write for free. Most bloggers have developed their own personal styles for how they write about scientific studies, the process of scientific discovery, science policy and the lives of people involved in science. Considering the heterogeneity in the science blogging community, is it even feasible to identify “standards” for scientific blogging? Are there some core scientific and journalistic standards that most science bloggers can agree on? Would such “standards” merely serve as informal guidelines or should they be used as measures to assess the quality of science blogging?

These are the kinds of questions that we will try to discuss at the session. I hope that we will have a lively discussion, share our respective viewpoints and see what we can learn from each other. To gauge the interest levels of the attendees, I am going to pitch a few potential discussion topics on this blog and use your feedback to facilitate the discussion. I would welcome all of your responses and comments, independent of whether you intend to attend the conference or the session. I will also post these questions in the Science Online discussion forum.

One of the challenges we face when we blog about specific scientific studies is determining how much background reading is necessary to write a reasonably accurate blog post. Most science bloggers probably read the original research paper they intend to write about, but even this can be challenging at times. Scientific papers aren’t very long. Journals usually restrict the word count of original research papers to somewhere between 2,000 words to 8,000 words (depending on each scientific journal’s policy and whether the study is a published as a short communication or a full-length article). However, original research papers are also accompanied four to eight multi-paneled figures with extensive legends.

Nowadays, research papers frequently include additional figures, data-sets and detailed descriptions of scientific methods that are published online and not subject to the word count limit. A 2,000 word short communication with two data figures in the main manuscript may therefore be accompanied by eight “supplemental” online-only figures and an additional 2,000 words of text describing the methods in detail. A single manuscript usually summarizes the results of multiple years of experimental work, which is why this condensed end-product is quite dense. It can take hours to properly study the published research study and understand the intricate details.

Is it enough to merely read the original research paper in order to blog about it? Scientific papers include a brief introduction section, but these tend to be written for colleagues who are well-acquainted with the background and significance of the research. However, unless one happens to blog about a paper that is directly related to one’s own work, most of us probably need additional background reading to fully understand the significance of a newly published study.

An expert on liver stem cells, for example, who wants blog about the significance of a new paper on lung stem cells will probably need substantial amount of additional background reading. One may have to read at least one or two older research papers by the authors or their scientific colleagues / competitors to grasp what makes the new study so unique. It may also be helpful to read at least one review paper (e.g. a review article summarizing recent lung stem cell discoveries) to understand the “big picture”. Some research papers are accompanied by scientific editorials which can provide important insights into the strengths and limitations of the paper in question.

All of this reading adds up. If it takes a few hours to understand the main paper that one intends to blog about, and an additional 2-3 hours to read other papers or editorials, a science blogger may end up having to invest 4-5 hours of reading before one has even begun to write the intended blog post.

What strategies have science bloggers developed to manage their time efficiently and make sure they can meet (external or self-imposed) deadlines but still complete the necessary background reading?

Should bloggers provide references and links to the additional papers they consulted?

Should bloggers try to focus on a narrow area of expertise so that over time they develop enough of a background in this niche area so that they do not need so much background reading?

Are there major differences in the expectations of how much background reading is necessary? For example, does an area such as stem cell research or nanotechnology require far more background reading because every day numerous new papers are published and it is so difficult to keep up with the pace of the research?

Is it acceptable to take short-cuts? Could one just read the paper that one wants to blog about and forget about additional background reading, hoping that the background provided in the paper is sufficient and balanced?

Can one avoid reading the supplementary figures or texts of a paper and just stick to the main text of a paper, relying on the fact that the peer reviewers of the published paper would have caught any irregularities in the supplementary data?

Is it possible to primarily rely on a press release or an interview with the researchers of the paper and just skim the results of the paper instead of spending a few hours trying to read the original paper?

Or do such short-cuts compromise the scientific and journalistic quality of science blogs?

Would a discussion about expectations, standards and strategies to manage background reading be helpful for participants of the session?