N – Journal or blog?

Researchers need better guidance on the value of different communication channels, the Research Information Network has concluded in a report based on literature review, bibliometric analysis, focus groups, interviews, and an online survey (www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/communicating-knowledge-how-and-why-researchers-pu). Conferences, blogs, and social networking tools are competing with scholarly journals for researchers’ work. “If funders and policymakers want to encourage researchers to publish and disseminate their work through channels other than scholarly journals, they need to give stronger and more positive messages about how they will be valued when it comes to assessing researchers’ performance,” a briefing on the paper states.