Whoa! ResearchBlogging.org just listed the finalists for their 2010 blogging awards. Brain Windows is one of five finalists for Expert-Level research blog of the year.
Cynics might say that giving out small monetary awards ($50, oh yeah baby!) and allowing voting only by bloggers registered by researchblogging.org is a cost-effective way to promote their site. This is hardly the only promotional tactic out there though. About once a week, I get an email from some firm that wants link share or have a service giveaway to influence content on Brain Windows to drive traffic to their site. I’ve never posted those things because the message never serves the readership of Brain Windows. However, Researchblogging.org does serve a useful purpose beyond just a content aggregator. Posts within that network, as well as Postgenomic, Nature Blogs, and Bloglines feed into the new PLoS One article-level metrics which give an idea about the impact of a publication long before additional journal publications have a chance to cite it. These metrics are another welcome step towards the validation of alternative, democratic models of content distribution in science.
So, if you are a believer in science blogs, alternative metrics of research output, and want to help me with my beer fund, head over to researchblogging.org, register and vote for Brain Windows. Voting invitations are sent out to registered users on March 4th.
Brain Windows 
Congratulations!
You’re right that there is an element of self-promotion in this, but we’re working hard to make the awards as fair as possible. We allowed anyone to nominate blogs, used an independent panel of judges to select finalists, and blogs do not have to be registered with us to win.
The primary reason we are restricting the voting to registered users is that we don’t want this to be a straight popularity contest, where high-traffic blogs can direct their hordes of readers to vote for them. By restricting the voting to bloggers themselves, we think we’ll end up with the best possible honorees.
Congratulations!
You’re right that there is an element of self-promotion in this: by the (independent) selection of finalists with good blogs that aren’t registered yet with researchblogging, they DO will obtain orders of new readers. This is a subtle promotion strategy, probably also efficient. On the other side, this prize to new blogs is probably devaluing the researchblogging icon, and disappointing those bloggers that hardly contributed in the past to the success of the network by providing valuable posts under the aegis of that mytical icon.
Thanks Dave,
Promotion does go both ways. I’m quite happy to receive this honor and all the attendant glory and traffic. More hits are great, as long they come from legit sources, and researchblogging.org is certainly one.
-A
definitely deserved.
Sorry, I didn’t do this, but I do love your blog. Thanks for doing it.