Research Blogging Awards 2010

You may have noticed a new widget on the right side-bar of this blog, one linking to the 2010 ResearchBlogging Awards, where I was shocked to see I had been nominated as one of the finalists for best social sciences and anthropology blogs, along with several other blogs some of which are on the AVRPI blogroll. This came as a humbling surprise, albeit I suppose also a flattering one

Regular readers will know that I usually append a ResearchBlogging vignette to the posts in which I discuss peer-reviewed papers. In their own words, RB is "a system for identifying the best, most thoughtful blog posts about peer-reviewed research. Since many blogs combine serious posts with more personal or frivolous posts, our site offers a way to find only the most carefully-crafted posts about cutting-edge research, often written by experts in their respective fields."

Basically, it's a neat system to diffuse the results of blogging on peer-reviewed research, that ensures that the reviewing is done by people with relevant background and qualifications. It also distinguishes bloggers that actually discuss the meat of given studies rather than just linking to or reposting press releases. As I've mentioned before, I think that this kind of quick and in-depth discussion is one of the aspects that make blogs so important and relevant. Plus, it can provide the seed for work that ultimately gets published.

Thinking about it a bit more, I'm very happy about this nomination, given that the time I devote to this blog is time I don't get to devote to A Very Remote Wife Indeed, my students, or my research. So, it's nice to have some kind of external recognition, and a thousand thanks to whomever nominated AVRPI. If you're interested in seeing the nomination go to the next level (i.e., for this blog to nominated as best social science/anthropology research blog of the year), you can vote at Research Blogging, from today until March 23. Here's how:

Voting: Voting for the winners will be conducted by invitation to bloggers registered with ResearchBlogging.org. Invitations will be sent on Thursday, March 4. If you're registered with us, you may want to check your account to make sure your email address is up-to-date. If you're not registered (and you blog about peer-reviewed research), you still have time to register so you can vote. Visit this page for more information.

Awards: The awards will be announced on March 23, 2010.