New networking site for scientists

Written byBob Grant

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There's a new kid on the ever-growing virtual bock of social networking websites. Last year I wrote about how scientists might use these linkurl:sites;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53233/ to optimize their impact in the scientific community, and a new social networking website geared specifically toward life scientists is set to go live this month. linkurl:BioMedExperts.com;http://www.biomedexperts.com/ compiles information about authors whose research papers appear on PubMed, showing the links between those scientists, their coauthors and even their coauthors' coauthors. Bill Kirkland, CEO of Collexis - the company that runs the site - told __The Scientist__ that BioMedExperts.com is distinctive among linkurl:other social networking sites,;http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/6/1/80/1/ such as LinkedIn, Nature Networks, and Zoominfo, because it creates "unique knowledge profiles of researchers based on what they've published." Kirkland said that BioMedExperts has already profiled more than 1.4 million researchers who have published work appearing in PubMed over the last decade and lists more than six million papers from about 6,500 journals. For each researcher, BioMedExperts lists his or her field, publications and collaborations, among other characteristics of professional life. Collexis' chief marketing officer, Darrell Gunter, gave me a sneak preview of the site and guided me through spider web-like visualizations of connections between coauthors and lists of publications in a particular field of interest. Over all, the site looks to be a good one for life scientists seeking a greater connection to their community. "I think it's going to allow a lot of folks to open new ground in research," Gunter told __The Scientist__. The site will be free and open to the public, and will also offer searches for experts in specific fields and locations.

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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