BMJ  2007;335:401 (25 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.39304.603148.59

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Facebook for scientists?

"So come on, people, pimp my coat! I'm tired of putting on the same old stained, shapeless one every morning," writes cell biologist Jenny Rohn in her call out to potential collaborators on Nature Network.

Rohn, a cell biologist at University College London and editor of the online cult science magazine LabLit.com, met former scientist Wynn Abbott, director of the science art agency SciCult, through Nature Network, a free online networking site for scientists. They started chatting at a Nature Network drinking session and realised that they were both deeply perplexed that the basic design of the white coat has remained unchanged for more than a century. They turned to Nature Network users to look for ideas.

Such collaboration is just one example of the potential networking benefits that the internet offers to scientists. While the Facebook website may already have the monopoly on social networking internationally, the Nature Publishing Group has been quick to capitalise on the professional networking capacity of the internet by launching Nature Network.

Although there are other professional networking sites, Nature Network aims to give "scientists a persistent public profile, which lets them find their own voice." This, the creators hope, "will raise the visibility of individual scientists and encourage early collaboration and information sharing."

Currently typical users are in their 20s or 30s, as with Facebook, and doing a PhD or postdoctoral research. Matt Brown, London editor of Nature Network, says that most users are life scientists, but he adds, "The network is equally useful for physicists, chemists, and those working in the health sciences. As well as researchers we also welcome librarians, curators, communicators, event organisers—anyone whose vocation puts them in touch with the scientific or medical world."

Nature Network originated in Boston in February this year as a way to find project collaborators in the area—home to Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and dozens of biotechnology companies. The site wasn't just for Bostonians, claimed Nature Publishing Group: "Locality lets us offer a solid events listing service to which anyone can add events." The site has expanded exponentially since then. A London hub was created in March this year, which now boasts 10 000 UK users, and there are several hundred thousand members worldwide.

Nature Network works on two levels. There are the local hubs—Boston and London— where users can meet local scientists, find events listings, seek jobs, and read articles related to science in those places. And there are the global pages, where users can interact with scientists all over the world, browse and join groups and forums, and read about international science in the blogs.

Each user has a public profile. This lists the user's occupation, interests, projects, publications, and contact details. Users can add other members of Nature Network to their own personal network by searching for them by name, email, or interests.

One key feature of the site is the groups, which allow individual communities to have their own space. A diverse range of groups already exists, from those for people working in specific clinical research, such as adult stem cells, to those on broader topics in health and medicine, such as the latest research on heart disease. Members of a group post topics to be discussed by other users in the group.

Online networks may not replace the bonds that researchers form through meeting someone face to face, but they do have their advantages. Travelling to conferences can be time consuming and expensive, and meeting future collaborators relies, in part, on chance. One of the main advantages of such networks is that you can find people with similar research interests very easily and start a dialogue from the comfort of your desk—and all for free. There's also the environmental advantage, in that online networking burns far less carbon than jetting off to international conferences.

Although Nature Networkers are, fortunately, spared the solipsism that seems to feature so much on Facebook, where no thought is too banal to share, the ability to post any scientific comment on the network has drawn criticism. Users have to register to post information and have a profile, but anyone can read the postings in the groups and forums and read the profiles. The main concern about all this hinges on the lack of peer review.

Brown argues that the facility whereby anyone can flag up things for moderation does constitute a form of peer review, albeit very different to the traditional variety. "The network isn't intended as a place to publish experimental results—that's still the remit of the scholarly journal," he says.

Although the Nature editorial team may moderate the network and try to prevent any misleading claims, users should treat information on the site with caution. And, as Matt Brown says, "Your comments are public, so never write anything you'd be uncomfortable saying to a room full of strangers."

How networking sites will shape scientific research remains to be seen and is difficult to predict—the technology is developing so fast. Brown thinks, though, that contributions on such sites might be something that researchers could cite on their CVs. "If a blog post is well done and attracts intelligent comments it's an easily accessible demonstration that the candidate is good at communicating—much better than just writing ‘I am a good communicator' on your CV," he says.

One of the main advantages is that you can find people with similar research interests very easily and start a dialogue from the comfort of your desk

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http://network.nature.com

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Are international medical conferences an outdated luxury the planet can’t afford? No

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Drife, J. O. (2008). Are international medical conferences an outdated luxury the planet can't afford? No. BMJ 336: 1467-1467 [Full text]  

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