Comments on: Science writing I’d pay to read

By: Chris Wilkins

Chris Wilkins — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:20:21 +0000

Ed, if you or any other scientist wants to have a micropayments system for your awesome articles, you can have one today in a flash. All it takes is a WordPress site, a simple plugin, a couple of rego things, and you’re in business. You set the prices, as little as 1c if you like, get the vast majority of the revenue, can collaborate with other authors, get all articles listed in a catalogue, and any reader needs only one account for access to all sites that use this system.

There are already two sites using this; http://www.scienceworksmagazine.com. This has PhD students in biology from India, an MIT professor, a physics professor, a working physicist and half a dozen more from various universities around the world acting as both authors and editors. New authors are joining each month. And they totally love the idea they get paid for their work, even though the price is incredibly small for the readers.

Then there is http://www.newsciencejournalism.com which has more than 400 science journalists spread all around the world.

It is early days, which is why I can’t list hundreds of sites. But I can tell you we are talking to unis and scientists everywhere and the interest is growing. Soon there will be a third, then a fourth, then a fifth, etc. website. And of course the tech is developing all the time.

You can get involved with a site that accepts outside authors, do your own, grab a group of like minded people and go for it, set up your own science journal, etc. And peer reviewing can all be part of it if you want to include such editorial processes. Science Works already does.

Many ways to do this. And in the weeks and months to follow many other associations and faculties will be turning on their trial sites. In fact, we are always looking for people who want to trial this.

By: Nithin

Nithin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:38:30 +0000

Details of 100+ Magazines/Websites which pays from $0.01 to $1 per word for writing
For details visit http://www.czigns.com/list.html

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:37:50 +0000

“The problem with Flattr (and I did mention it in the post) is that it requires everyone whose posts I want to pay for to have Flattr buttons on their sites.”

However you want to reward people for the work they do, they are somehow going to have to accept your reward. Whether that is through flattr or paypal or anything else to make it easy everyone needs to be in the same system (as individual, personal transactions are going to be impractical at any reasonable scale), and given the ease and cooperative nature of flattr, why not that?

By: Gaia

Gaia — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:07:18 +0000

Great idea Ed!

By: Pablo Soriano

Pablo Soriano — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:48:38 +0000

My vote goes for encouraging writers to use flatter. I think its use of a monthly fixed assignment is a great idea, allowing you to compulsively vote for your favourite posts, without having to think twice about not ruining your budget.

By: Emmy

Emmy — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 02:52:55 +0000

I think the easiest way is to encourage your favorite writers to either have a PayPal Donate button on their blogs, or a link to a private website that has a Donate button there. That way everyone can donate easily. Some of my WP friends have charities as well for conservation, wildlife rescue, and are paying out of their own pockets. So I think your idea is great on many levels. I will recommend to my science friends that they post such links. Thanks.

By: Van Waffle

Van Waffle — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:37:02 +0000

This could be a great community building project.

By: Bishnu Marasini

Bishnu Marasini — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:52:14 +0000

Eminent scientists are resisting cut in budget allocated for science and technology in some countries, where as others (from poor countries) are demanding to increase percentage from invisible ground line.

To write a quality article, we have to feed news and discovery from journals (but full text are inaccessible here in Nepal, except few from the courtesy of HINARI / WHO). Thanks to the Bloggers who provide latest news / articles related to science, free of cost (panic: we are living 10 hr/day without electricity and very slow internet connection, even if available).

Master card, visa card, pay pal etc. are rare. I don’t know about Flattr, however, I have been clicking advertisements (if anchor text is interesting to me, hence becoming rare contribution) present in the vicinity of “the articles of quality” in blogs.

By: David McGloin

David McGloin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:52:12 +0000

This is a nice idea. I do like the idea of this type of ‘philanthropic’ support for the creative people of the world. A different, but related, model is that of the Awesome Foundation (http://awesomefoundation.org/), where 10 people in some geographic location (there is one in London, for example) each donate a £100 (or $100) per month and then give this out as grants of up to £1000 to do something, well, awesome. Not sure if you could mold this to the writing type model, it would probably have to reward a body of work rather than individual pieces, but I do find it hopeful that people are prepared to stump up their own money to reward things that people give freely. Maybe we should put that old adage to the test, ‘I love science (or other cool job) so much I’d probably do it even if they didn’t pay me’. We could invite micropayments for peer reviewed publications…

By: Dorothy Bishop

Dorothy Bishop — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:42:09 +0000

I love Ed’s sentiment, but think this complicates life unnecessarily.
Some of those who blog for free may do so because (like me) they have a well-paid day job (from which blogging provides some welcome light relief).
Others may hope to build up a reputation that will allow them to become professional bloggers.

For those in the first category, sensible thing might be to have a notice recommending donations to a favourite charity for those who like the blog.

For the rest, a recommendation on Ed’s blog will be worth far more to them than 3 pounds.