With the growth of the Internet, isolation is becoming obsolete. Even if one is the only graduate student in the building doing immunohistochemistry on zebrafish embryos, chances are one can communicate easily with a scientist using the same technique across the country or on another continent. Likewise, a senior postdoc dealing with job-hunting blues can commiserate with researchers from all over who are facing similar difficulties. Discussion groups on the Web, in their many forms, are a valuable resource for scientists. As with most Internet resources, finding the good sites can be a challenge.

The most common forms of Web-accessible discussions are newsgroups and discussion groups. Two elements that contribute to productive online discussion are a critical mass of participants and some sort of moderator who monitors the quality of the comments. Not all of the sites listed below have both of these components, but several were worth mentioning, not for their current level of participation, but for their potential usefulness and for the quality of the information they provide. MOOs, comprising an environment allowing for virtual conferences, were discussed in detail in a previous In Situ article, Research Collaboration via MOO, and will not be covered here.

Newsgroups provide a discussion forum for individuals with similar interests. They cover an enormous range of topics and vary in both the level of participation and the quality of discussion. Some groups are moderated, which helps to filter out spam. Newsgroups began, and still are accessible, through newsreaders. This awkward interface has been updated with Web interfaces that are more user-friendly. The Web's search capabilities also allow more effective use of these groups. Deja News (reviewed in detail in a previous Site Review column) is a powerful search engine that accesses postings from over 50,000 newsgroups. A search can be conducted by keyword, author, newsgroup, or date to filter the retrieved postings for selected topics. The advanced Power Search provides more search options. The section My Deja News functions as a Web-interface newsreader. After filling out a brief and free registration form, users can subscribe to newsgroups in addition to searching for specific topics.

BIOSCI, "the electronic newsgroup network for biology," provides well-organized access to the extensive collection of bionet newsgroups, which are part of the greater collection of newsgroups called Usenet. BIOSCI has provided biological scientists with a forum for communication for over ten years. Newsgroups are listed alphabetically and by topic, and individuals can start new newsgroups. Individual Web pages for each group include recent messages, an archive of previous messages, and a frequently-asked-questions link (FAQ) if one is available. Each group has a search function that will find keywords in posted messages, which is a useful tool for some of the more popular groups, and new posts can be submitted to if your Web browser can handle email.

With more than ninety newsgroups, BIOSCI has something for almost everyone, including discussions about model systems like Arabidopsis, Drosophila, and C. elegans. Information about professional societies, software, and techniques is also available through specific newsgroups. In general, the moderated newsgroups offer much more productive discussions. The Employment group lists a huge number of job openings, many for postdoctoral or industrial positions. While sorting through the list can be time consuming, this moderated group might be a good place to look for your next research position. Another popular newsgroup is Methds-Reagnts. This busy site supports a heavy load of questions and answers about various protocols. For an unmoderated group, it receives very little spam.

The Web interfaces for newsgroups will look familiar to anyone who has participated in online discussion groups. While these interactions often use a browser-based form for submitting messages instead of email, the organization of the discussion is similar. Science's Big Debates, a section of Science's Next Wave, discusses topics related to young scientists. Viewpoints on given topics are delivered by chosen participants, and public forums also revolve around the topics. A new discussion is started every two months or so. The discussions' format provides ample material for starting a dialogue, and the quality of the comments is generally high.

Cafe Utne Science Conference, part of the Utne Reader's extensive online forum site, is divided into 71 topics that vary from the discussion of general to technical science issues and covers scientific issues in the press today. The level of traffic varies, but the comments tend to be serious and thoughtful, and the conferencing software is quite powerful. Free registration is required.

Medscape Clinical Discussions, one of many clinically oriented discussion groups, covers a broad range of topics of interest to physicians. Subjects include research articles, clinical cases, and book reviews. A simple search function allows the discussions to be sorted by 22 different topics. While the traffic level is not too heavy, the comments stay on the topic at hand. To find more online discussion groups for clinicians, see the MedWeb link listed in Endlinks.

Online discussion groups can also be a source of ideas and information for science teachers. SciTalk, a discussion group open to scientists and high school science teachers, covers a selected topic that is presented by an "expert in the field" who contributes throughout the discussion period. Although the quality (and length) of the discussion varies from topic to topic, this site provides an important opportunity for teachers and scientists to interact. Another part of Genentech's Access Excellence program is the Teachers' Lounge, which is geared toward high school teachers. Its "message board" lists a wide range of education and science discussion topics. Participants may either fill out a brief registration form or use the site as a guest. There is much good information at this site for teachers who really want their students to understand science. It also provides an easy way for science teachers across the country to exchange knowledge and ideas.

Several newsgroups have been devoted to the discussion of laboratory techniques, and new ones are being added to deal with such topics as automated sequencing and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA. Now this niche is also being filled by online discussion groups. Technical Tips Online is a molecular biology techniques site, developed by the Elsevier Trends Journals, where participants can submit protocols and comment on the protocols submitted by others. This site, which requires free registration, does not have high enough participation to take full advantage of its comment-and-response setup, but its design could be efficient for finding new protocols or overcoming troubles with old ones.

Another recent addition to scientific online discussions is the electronic journal club. The On-Line Journal Club of the Alzheimer Research Forum presents a well-integrated use of several Web tools. For each paper, background information and an overview are given. Several questions are also posed of the authors; the inclusion of their responses is a luxury not often afforded to conventional journal clubs. The site incorporates live online discussions around a selected paper. (A transcript is available for those who missed the live discussion.) There is also an ongoing Journal Club Newsgroup where questions concerning the papers are posted and answered. This forum allows the exchange of ideas among some of the top scientists in the field of AD research and is an asset to researchers, especially junior scientists, who may not have an opportunity to interact with the 'big names' in the field on a regular basis.

Two other resources are the Journal Club on the Web, for clinicians, and the Genetics Journal Club, part of the National Center for Genome Resources' Genetics and Public Issues pages. Although neither one of these sites gets very heavy traffic, they are worth considering, if not for your own use, than as a model on which to build an online journal club of your own.

Endlinks

USENET Job Groups and WWW Forums - a one-stop site for discussion groups related to science jobs from Careers In (and Out) of Science.

Frequently Asked Questions from the bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts newsgroup - very useful site for those interested in the Bionet Methods-Reagents newsgroup. It provides access to the newsgroup itself, which has heavy traffic and plenty of opinions.

Journal Clubs - gives an alphabetical listing of online, clinical journal clubs (some would be more appropriately titled Research Paper Synopses) from Emory University's Health Sciences Center Library MedWeb project. Sites are also listed by category

Discussion Groups - also from MedWeb, includes links to many email lists or listservers as well. Most sites are clinically oriented. Sites are also listed by category.

Forum One - a search engine for over 180,000 online discussion groups. The search results include the total number of posts, the date of the most recent post, and whether registration is required to participate. A more powerful search format would make this site more useful.

Search The List of Lists - a simple search engine for locating special interest group email lists or listservs, a form of Internet mailing-list discussion. Most entries include a description of the topics covered in the discussion.

Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists - another means of finding listservs. This site has a search engine and an alphabetical and subject listing to facilitate browsing. Site Review - the Alzheimer's Research Forum is discussed in depth in HMS Beagle.

HMS Beagle discussion-group resources:

Web sites mentioned in this column

Deja News

BIOSCI

Science's Big Debates

Utne Reader

Medscape Clinical Discussions

Genentech's Access Excellence