by David S. Bailey and Edward D. Zanders
This article reviews current trends in scientific networking, particularly in relation to pharmaceutical research by individual chemists and biologists. They examine a range of networking sites and highlight features that have the potential to benefit individual scientists and their collective research efforts.
Within the article the authors define a networking website as one where individuals have an online presence that is visible to all who have access to the site. This presence may range from a name on a list of contacts to an ‘online conversation’ on message boards or blogs. Networking is possible either by linking one individual to another enabling one-to-one contact or by being made aware of groups and organisations that are working on similar problems, either as competitors or potential collaborators.
The following interactive networking sites are considered for their utility in drug discovery research:
i) General social networking sites
ii) Business networking sites
iii) General science and/or medicine networking sites
iv) Drug-discovery-specific networking sites