The Quality Blog: Proposal of a New Format in Lieu of Academic Research Blog

Abstract

Academic institutions are exploring new mediums for publishing and disseminating research output; in this article, the author is primarily focused on the role of Academic Research Blog (ARB) maintained by universities, departments, or groups of scholars. The author investigated the typical patterns and flaws of the current ARB; the analysis suggests that there is a need, and therefore an opportunity, to upgrade it in a new format, which the author calls the Quality Blog. The Quality Blog is defined by a set of eighteen requirements (policies and characteristics). Some of these requirements are already present in the ARBs, while others are derived from the journal format. The novelty of the Quality Blog format that is proposed consists in applying together all of these eighteen requirements (policies and characteristics), inclusively. The Quality Blog will overcome the limitations that the ARBs have and be a more economically sound decision regarding costs for monograph and journal workflows. The ‘Quality’ attribute refers to three dimensions: contents, processes, and technology; the practical and operational choices that each Quality Blog will need to make regarding these three quality dimensions will determine the success and sustainability of the project throughout the course of time. In examining the blogs of the top thirty-eight business schools, the author investigates the blogs by cataloging the types of blogs and then the digital platform used. Of these institutions, 90 per cent have created and maintain blogs, and 51 per cent use the ARB powered by a content management system. These results reveal that the Quality Blog would be a new paradigm of research communications to adopt in place of ARB by higher education institutions, research groups, and initiatives interested in promoting academic publishing projects both in science, technology, and mathematics and in humanities and social science subject areas, and re-prioritizes faster, real-time academic communication.