About the author

Dan Rhoads

Dan is a postdoc working at the University of Cyprus in developmental biology. He has a BSc in molecular biology and a PhD pharmacology and biochemistry.

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As scientists, we have to keep up with new research coming out and follow the journals. We all have our preferred way of doing so though. Sporadic searches on Pubmed are one way, or weekly email updates on specific search terms (also offered by Pubmed) are another. Alternatively, there’s Hubmed for RSS of Pubmed updates, and many more options besides.

Using search terms narrows your attention however, so I prefer simply browsing around my favorite journals online. I get a broader sampling of current research that way – which may not be of concern for the average scientist, but for a blogger, it’s often more productive for finding topics to blog on in the peer-review literature.

Some of my favorite journals, below the fold (feel free to add to the list in the comments!):

Science and Nature, as the obvious two.

Cell

PLoS Biology

Journal of Cell Biology

PNAS

Nature Cell Biology

EMBO Journal

Nucleic Acids Research

Developmental Cell

Current Biology

Nature Genetics

Unfortunately, while these are great journals, they’re not all Open Access. Of those listed, only PLoS Biology and Nucleic Acids Research are OA, which is troubling. All of those great articles, locked away from all those without an institutional subscription (or $30 per article).