My take is different. As a working scientist/engineer in the hard sciences, I use peer-reviewed research when possible, but I temper that with phone calls to companies, emails to other labs, posts on ResearchGate, informal conversations with colleagues, and of course my own experiments, mechanistic models, and critical thinking skills. Peer-reviewed research is nearly always my starting point because it’s typically more information and data-rich and specific than blog posts, and because the information I need is more often contained within peer-reviewed research than in blog posts.
That said, there are a lot of issues and concerns raised when blog posts are too heavily a source (although here that’s very much the pot calling the kettle black, with most of the footnotes being the author’s own unsourced personal opinions). When people lean too heavily on blog posts, it may illustrate that they’re unfamiliar with the scientific literature relevant to the issue, and that they themselves have mostly learned about the information by consuming other blog posts. Also, a compelling post that’s full of blog post links (or worse, unsourced claims) gives the interested reader little opportunity to check the underpinnings of the argument or get connected with working scientists in the field.
I’m fine with using the medium of blog posts to convey an idea, or of citing blog posts in specific circumstances. Where a peer-reviewed source is available, I think it’s better to either use that, or to cite it and give the blog post as an accessible alternative.
My take is different. As a working scientist/engineer in the hard sciences, I use peer-reviewed research when possible, but I temper that with phone calls to companies, emails to other labs, posts on ResearchGate, informal conversations with colleagues, and of course my own experiments, mechanistic models, and critical thinking skills. Peer-reviewed research is nearly always my starting point because it’s typically more information and data-rich and specific than blog posts, and because the information I need is more often contained within peer-reviewed research than in blog posts.
That said, there are a lot of issues and concerns raised when blog posts are too heavily a source (although here that’s very much the pot calling the kettle black, with most of the footnotes being the author’s own unsourced personal opinions). When people lean too heavily on blog posts, it may illustrate that they’re unfamiliar with the scientific literature relevant to the issue, and that they themselves have mostly learned about the information by consuming other blog posts. Also, a compelling post that’s full of blog post links (or worse, unsourced claims) gives the interested reader little opportunity to check the underpinnings of the argument or get connected with working scientists in the field.
I’m fine with using the medium of blog posts to convey an idea, or of citing blog posts in specific circumstances. Where a peer-reviewed source is available, I think it’s better to either use that, or to cite it and give the blog post as an accessible alternative.