What Is A Top Article?
I write quite a few things each year. Counting work on outside sites, it is over 200 pieces, so picking a top list means first picking some real criteria for inclusion.
Just because, I left out things that were just snarky, even if they were popular or got a lot of comments, because no one wants snark to be in their obituary. It's easy, and sometimes it is needed, and lots of science media pundits base their whole careers on it, but it isn't worthy. And popularity alone won't mean much. Things like Thomson Reuters Pledges More Impact Factor Transparency and The Food Babe Took Down Her Goofy Microwave Oven Post - Science Win, were not articles, they weren't even blogs, they were in the Cool Links section, but even those got 6,000 readers.
And comments don't mean much. Many sites have shut off comments because they don't have a lot of value. Heck, some of the comments by people who are members here don't have much value, so the outside world surely doesn't add much in most cases. Anything remotely controversial will get comments so that isn't really an indicator of quality.
Instead, you want to have things you would be proud to see. So one criterion for inclusion was traffic, even though I have lots of things I am proud of that only got 5,000 reads. Still, it isn't objective to just stick pieces in there despite a lack of critical or popular acclaim so I narrowed it down to about 40 articles based on traffic and then picked things that I felt educated me or the audience and had some value for the public.
With that said, let's get started! First up...
If You Care About The Environment, Here Are Two Reasons To Support Big Ag
Just because, I left out things that were just snarky, even if they were popular or got a lot of comments, because no one wants snark to be in their obituary. It's easy, and sometimes it is needed, and lots of science media pundits base their whole careers on it, but it isn't worthy. And popularity alone won't mean much. Things like Thomson Reuters Pledges More Impact Factor Transparency and The Food Babe Took Down Her Goofy Microwave Oven Post - Science Win, were not articles, they weren't even blogs, they were in the Cool Links section, but even those got 6,000 readers.
And comments don't mean much. Many sites have shut off comments because they don't have a lot of value. Heck, some of the comments by people who are members here don't have much value, so the outside world surely doesn't add much in most cases. Anything remotely controversial will get comments so that isn't really an indicator of quality.
Instead, you want to have things you would be proud to see. So one criterion for inclusion was traffic, even though I have lots of things I am proud of that only got 5,000 reads. Still, it isn't objective to just stick pieces in there despite a lack of critical or popular acclaim so I narrowed it down to about 40 articles based on traffic and then picked things that I felt educated me or the audience and had some value for the public.
With that said, let's get started! First up...
If You Care About The Environment, Here Are Two Reasons To Support Big Ag
