PhysMath Central Blog

Commenting on the commenters

I found this interesting blog post on Nature's dissection of BioMed Central's comments today:

While the normal forms of commenting occurred (criticism, requests for clarification, interpretive comments), to me the most interesting part of the commentary generated was the additional information users contributed, including links and downloads. This is new in richness and immediacy, factors that are unique to the online form.Kent Anderson, The Scholarly Kitchen, Jul 2008

It made me wonder why people are generally more likely to reply to a blog post than comment on a scholarly article. Certainly it is easier to comment on a blog post (often no registration or email verification needed), but maybe the fact that the comment is archived alongside the article makes people reluctant to comment unless they are 100% sure of their facts. After all, no one wants to be seen to be wrong in perpetuity! If you have never commented on a scientific article, what are your reasons. Did you agree 100% with all the articles you have read?

 

Posted by Chris Leonard at 16:01    Comments (0)