I have been busy setting up the Chinese language version of ResearchBlogging.org. To explain how research blogging can be meaningful and important to the Chinese bloggers I have to provide several points and examples in an introductory webpage.

One of the best example is the recent blogging review on a NaH catalyzed oxidation reaction published on JACS¹. The unexpected property of this reagent stirred up a number of synthetic chemists who repeated it and reported on their blogs. Chemistry World even reported this reviewing action from the blogosphere. This event best exemplified the role blogs can play in the “post-peer review” process — peer review on a published research work, during especially controversies in the academic community.

If ResearchBlogging.org — a Web 2.0 tool to syndicate research blog posts into tagged, searchable, RSS-feeding, and DOI-linked network — has gained supports from major chemistry blogs, this oxidative NaH events must have some records in it. However, I did a search in ResearchBlogging.org for that JACS paper but no blog post was related. Blogs I know which wrote about this paper — Totally Synthetic, Carbon Based Curiosities and PeterMR’s blog did not use ResearchBlogging.org to spread the discussion. My post here may be the first on ResearchBlogging.org linked with the controversial JACS paper.

These blogs may not need to use ResearchBlogging.org since they have had enough visits and comments as were shown under their posts. Indeed, they, not and well without ResearchBlogging.org, led and accelerated this discussion. However, ResearchBlogging.org and its readers may lose an opportunity to join this discussion. After all, Web 2.0 is about the effect of collective behavior of unknown contributors, instead of led, concentrated effect by several famous individuals. Though the latter may still be important, but more interesting is the former, which ResearchBlogging.org seeks to promote.

As a blogger you may care no other’s view and be as independent as possible among the WWW, but as a researcher you have to be the opposite, and only in this case ResearchBlogging.org can be helpful and attractive to you.

UPDATE: Here’s Paul’s reply.

¹ Wang, X., Zhang, B., & Wang, D. (2009). Reductive and Transition-Metal-Free: Oxidation of Secondary Alcohols by Sodium Hydride Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/ja904224y