Researchers’ blogging practices in two epistemic cultures: the scholarly blog as a situated genre

This paper presents a study of scholarly blogs. The aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of what characterizes blogging as part of the scholarly communication within epistemic cultures. A study was conducted of 16 scholarly blogs, from two different scientific areas. Eight blogs from high energy physics (HEP) and eight from digital history were closely followed. The analysis was made by employing an analytical framework based on genre theory. The results reveal common communicative purposes in the scholarly blogs; there are many similarities in form features and content, which also relate to the purposes of the blogs. In addition, the context in which the blogs are situated is based both in the blogging researchers’ epistemic cultures and in their knowledge about blogging practices. A conclusion is that the scholarly blog is an addition to the landscape of scholarly communication, including communication with the public, and that the scholarly blogs contribute to our understanding of how research is done.