Most of us have probably realised that online networks and online networking have become incredibly popular. In the past years, Facebook , especially is being mentioned everywhere and by everyone. In Facebook, you can stay in touch with friends or re-establish contacts from the past. Although Facebook can also be used for professional networking more dedicated sites such as LinkedIn exist for this use.

It was of course only a matter of time before dedicated networking sites for scientists appeared. After all, a large and widespread network is very important for scientists hoping to find jobs in academia. More than half of all scientists have found their current jobs through their own or their former supervisor’s network.

The online networking site for scientists is called Nature Network and is run by the Nature Publishing Group, which is also behind the renowned journal Nature. It shows on the site that a large resourceful organisation is behind it. It is professionally made and intuitive to use.

It also has a clever little gadget, since published scientific papers can be added to your profile by online typing (or copying and pasting) the doi (digital object identifier) number into the field. A part from creating profiles, read and write blogs and invite other scientists to join your network, you can also join specific discussion groups.

There are more than 300 groups including such groups as ’Science writers’, ‘Postdocs and graduate students of the world’, ‘Science in science fiction’ and ‘Nanotechnology’. Like many other similar sites, Nature Networks suffers though from a lack of user activity. Several of the groups for instance have not more than a dozen members and only a few entries per week. However, Nature Network is still young and growing.

To network via the internet has some clear advantages, since you avoid the embarrassment of having to approach unknown researchers at meetings and conferences. However, online networking lacks the personal touch, which in my opinion is essential for successful networking. Despite the current success of networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, there is as yet no evidence of the usefulness of online networking. But there is no doubt that online networking is useful for establishing first contacts and, if these contacts are then followed by personal offline networking at events and conferences, it will give the online networker a clear advantage. In the future perhaps your online network will be as important as your offline network.