Who listens to scientists? Mostly just other scientists.

Re:Who listens to scientists? Mostly just other scientists. by orillian on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @03:47PM (#2680109)

There is a small issue with your tricks and that is that the end user...you or I, knows about the paper in the first place and are trying to gain access to it.

The broader issue as I see it, is that for a layperson or a hobbyist in a scientific field it is near impossible to find papers that you did not hear about through the media or by being in proximity to the authors.

If you do happen upon them, it's usually by pure dumb luck and happenstance. More centralized and open locations for discourse are required.

How about a ycombinator for scientific research?

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Re:Who listens to scientists? Mostly just other scientists. by tensor on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @04:21PM (#2680231)

There is definitely a need for services that collect, categorize, and disseminate new scientific information in an easy to understand fashion. These types of services would be valuable both to the public and to researchers.

The trouble is that services needs to be domain specific and it is likely a full time job to continually mine the journals for new content. User submissions are an excellent idea, but probably not sufficient on their own. For example, there is already HN-like site for biomed: http://hackermed.com/hot

There is opportunity here, especially in the areas like health and fitness which are more popular to the public.

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