Rogue Scholar Newsletter March 2026

By Martin Fenner | April 2, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.53731/wfp26-6ej12

Blogs added to Rogue Scholar

One blog was added in March. This increases the number of participating blogs (after adjusting for retired blogs) to 186 , the number of archived posts has grown to 49,606 – Rogue Scholar is getting closer to the big milestones of 200 participating blogs with 50,000 posts!

ORION-DBs

Library and Information Sciences, English.
https://orion-dbs.community/blog/

The a backlog of new blog submissions is still not resolved, so please be patient. You can always reach out via Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky to ask about the status of your submission.

Technical Updates

One focus of the technical work in March was on infrastructure improvements. The monitoring of the Rogue Scholar infrastructure was improved by deploying a self-hosted observability platform for logs, metrics and errors with dashboards and alerting using the Grafana open source platform:

Th dashboard for key metadata metrics initially released in March 2025 was improved visually and launched for communities, including blog communities:

This makes it much easier for readers to get an overview for each blog participating in Rogue Scholar, and for blog authors to see gaps in metadata coverage that they can improve.

This week the blog self-management in Rogue Scholar was improved, enabling blog owners to update all relevant blog metadata.

Community Updates

The technical updates mentioned above are part of an effort to align Rogue Scholar better with the InvenioRDM repository platform. This will make it easier in the long run to sustain and update Rogue Scholar, as an increasing proportion of the required functionality is built into InvenioRDM and developed and used by other repositories.

Please use Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky if you have any questions or comments.

References

1. Fenner, M. (2026, March 16). Increasing operational transparency in Rogue Scholar. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/3w24g-cdz85
2. Fenner, M. (2026, March 26). Introducing Rogue Scholar community dashboards. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/809xc-y7r79
3. Fenner, M. (2026, April 1). Rogue Scholar improves blog self-management. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/dp6ra-trw41

Rogue Scholar Newsletter January 2026

By Martin Fenner | February 11, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.53731/j79xq-nqz17

This is the January 2026 issue of the monthly newsletter from the Rogue Scholar science blog archive. The newsletter reports on new blogs that have joined the platform, important technical updates in Rogue Scholar infrastructure, community updates, and other news relevant to Rogue Scholar users.

Blogs added to Rogue Scholar

One blog was added in January. Welcome! This brings the number of participating blogs to 190, and the number of archived posts to 49,135 – Rogue Scholar is close to the big milestones of 200 participating blogs with 50,000 posts!

Open Evidence

Perspectives on science, data, and technology that don't fit anywhere else.
Sociology and Political Science, English.
http://chrismarcum.com/marcum-blog/

The a backlog of new blog submissions is still not resolved, so please be patient. You can always reach out via Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky to ask about the status of your submission.

Technical Updates

One focus of the technical work in January was on refining Rogue Scholar Identity and Access Management (IAM) via Keycloak, launched in December. Instead of one-time passwords (a six digit code), Keycloak now sends emails with magic links that automatically sign in the user into Rogue Scholar when clicked in the email (the link expires after 15 min).

Rogue Scholar completed the migration to Coolify Cloud, so that (almost) all services are self-hosted now, making operating Rogue Scholar both simpler and more affordable.

The subject classification using OpenAlex fields, subfields and topic introduced in November was further improved, automatically mapping subfields to OECD Fields of Science (FOS), and providing clickable links to query by FOS, Subfield or Topic, e.g. FOS Computer and information sciences.

Community Updates

Work on Rogue Scholar becoming a German non-profit organization in 2026 is slowly progressing. While we work on the legal documents needed to register as a German non-profit, you can express your interest in joining Rogue Scholar as an individual or organization via a form link (Membership Interest Form) from the footer of every Rogue Scholar page.

Please use Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky if you have any questions or comments.

References

1. Fenner, M. (2025, December 30). Consolidating Rogue Scholar Authentication. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/5q274-3e235
2. Fenner, M. (2026, January 15). Rogue Scholar now supports passwordless authentication with magic links. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/tb8z7-7ft90
3. Fenner, M. (2026, January 22). Rogue Scholar migrated to Coolify Cloud. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/dzznx-zkn71
4. Fenner, M. (2026, January 29). Rogue Scholar is improving subject classification (Version 3). Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/76vm1-yme44
5. Fenner, M. (2025, November 3). Rogue Scholar is becoming a German Non-Profit Organization. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/rftfk-qv692

Rogue Scholar Newsletter December 2025

By Martin Fenner | January 8, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.53731/s7y9a-es04

This is the December 2025 issue of the monthly newsletter from the Rogue Scholar science blog archive. The newsletter reports on new blogs that have joined the platform, important technical updates in Rogue Scholar infrastructure, community updates, and other news relevant to Rogue Scholar users.

Blogs added to Rogue Scholar

Three blogs were added in November. Welcome! This brings the number of participating blogs to 190, and the number of archived posts to 48,099. Because of the holidays, Rogue Scholar currently has a backlog of new blog submissions that I hope to resolve within the next two weeks.

Data Diction

Data and the stories they tell us.
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty, English.
https://data-diction.com/

Nicola Romanò

Of data analysis, biology and random other things.
Computer Science Applications, English.
https://www.nicolaromano.net/

Gleb Ebert

This is Gleb Ebert's personal website. You can learn about me and what I do here.
Genetics, English.
https://www.gl-eb.me/blog/

Technical Updates

The focus of the technical work in December was on consolidating Rogue Scholar Identity and Access Management (IAM), described in detail in a blog post on December 30. Rogue Scholar has launched a self-hosted Keycloak instance at auth.front-matter.de, and all users now have to authenticate via this instance. New accounts require an ORCID identifier, and login is supported via ORCID or one-time passwords sent to the user account email address. As part of the transition to the new service, all accounts receive a new internal user identifier once they login via Keycloak.

The submission form for new blogs has been updated to require an ORCID, and in the next few months Rogue Scholar will require an ORCID for the corresponding author of new blog posts – 33.8% of all blog posts currently include at least one ORCID.

Community Updates

As an incentive for paid Rogue Scholar membership, and in anticipation of Rogue Scholar becoming a German non-profit organization in 2026, Rogue Scholar started weekly newsletters with newly published blog posts in popular subject areas in December. This monthly newsletter is now also distributed via a new mailing list that all users can sign up for via the Rogue Scholar homepage.

Please use Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky if you have any questions or comments.

References

1. Fenner, M. (2025, December 30). Consolidating Rogue Scholar Authentication. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/5q274-3e235
2. Fenner, M. (2025, December 8). Incentives for Rogue Scholar membership. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/n65p5-58463
3. Fenner, M. (2025, November 3). Rogue Scholar is becoming a German Non-Profit Organization. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/rftfk-qv692

Rogue Scholar Newsletter September 2025

By Martin Fenner | October 2, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.53731/kzg6q-mes47

This is the September issue of the monthly newsletter from the Rogue Scholar science blog archive. The newsletter reports on new blogs that have joined the platform, important technical updates in Rogue Scholar infrastructure, community updates, and other news relevant to Rogue Scholar users.

Blogs added to Rogue Scholar

One blog was added in September. Welcome! More blogs are on the waitlist, and I hope to add them all at the beginning of October. I got distracted by summer vacation, a wonderful Dagstuhl seminar on Open Scholarly Information Systems, and by important technical work (see below). Please be patient if you submitted your blog. This brings the number of participating blogs to 173, and the number of archived posts to 46,585.

UK ACM SIGCSE

UK ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education.
Computer and information sciences, English.
https://uki-sigcse.acm.org/

Technical Updates

In September, Rogue Scholar launched a new workflow with Crossref DOI registration built into the InvenioRDM platform, including versioning of blog posts. While versioning is less important for science blogs compared to data and software, it is useful for major new versions, e.g. after peer review.

On September 15, login via local usernames/passwords into Rogue Scholar was retired, as announced in August. Local accounts were far too often never verified by users, creating a significant burden on account management. Please use authentication via ORCID and/or passkeys going forward if you manage a blog with Rogue Scholar.

Community Update

In September, the GigaScience editorial team based in Hong Kong was retired, and outgoing Editor in Chief Scott Edmunds summarized the 15-year Open Science journey of the platform in a personal farewell post. The GigaBlog was one of the first blogs joining Rogue Scholar in February 2023, and a perfect example of why science blogging adds an interesting and important dimension to scholarly communication.

The Rogue Scholar Slack continues to have interesting discussions on a variety of topics. Please use Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky if you have any questions or comments regarding this monthly newsletter.

References

1. Fenner, M. (2025, September 11). Rogue Scholar now registers DOIs with InvenioRDM. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/pk03d-24338
2. Fenner, M. (2025, September 29). Rogue Scholar starts supporting versioning. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/nxp08-a9947
3. Marcum, C. S. (2025, April 8). Peer-Review for a Blog Post? My Experience with MetaROR. Upstream. https://doi.org/10.54900/bymaz-4fw37
4. Edmunds, S. (2025, September 17). And it's goodbye from me. GigaBlog. https://doi.org/10.59350/hzfr4-z0881

Rogue Scholar Newsletter October 2025

By Martin Fenner | October 31, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.53731/d0wwa-gwz14

This is the October issue of the monthly newsletter from the Rogue Scholar science blog archive. The newsletter reports on new blogs that have joined the platform, important technical updates in Rogue Scholar infrastructure, community updates, and other news relevant to Rogue Scholar users.

Blogs added to Rogue Scholar

Ten blogs were added in September. Welcome! More blogs are on the waitlist and will be added soon. This brings the number of participating blogs to 184, and the number of archived posts to 47,385.

qec.Codes

Quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures at the University of Edinburgh.
Computer and information sciences, English.
https://qec.codes/

Blasted Bioinformatics!?

Bioinformatics lessons learned the hard way, bugs, gripes, and maybe topical paper reviews too...
Biological Sciences, English.
https://blastedbio.blogspot.com/

Bio <-> Chem

Technical notes from the interface between bioinformatics and cheminformatics by Chris Southan.
Biological Sciences, English.
https://cdsouthan.blogspot.com/

Anil Madhavapeddy's feed

Computer and information sciences, English.
https://anil.recoil.org/notes

Commonplace Lab

Notes on nature poking.
Biological Sciences, English.
https://naturepoker.wordpress.com/

Antoine Vernet's blog

Social science, English.
https://antoinevernet.com/blog/

Cormac Monaghan's blog

Computer and information sciences, English.
https://c-monaghan.github.io/posts/

Steve Martin

Economics and business, English.
https://marberts.github.io/blog/

Data Art & Science Blog

Exploring the art and science of working with development and humanitarian data.
Social science, English.
https://juan-torresmunguia.netlify.app/blog/

évologie

Réflexions sur l'évolution, la biodiversité et la vie.
Natural sciences, French.
https://evologie.netlify.app/

Technical Updates

This week, Rogue Scholar added support for contributions beyond authorship in collaboration with the ropensci blog. The contributor roles editor, translator, and interviewee are now supported in Rogue Scholar (all) and Crossref (editor, translator) metadata.

The blog post describes the work needed in the blog Atom or JSON Feed to include these new contributor roles. Over the coming months, more roles will be added, including roles from the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CrediT). Crossref is planning to add CrediT support to its metadata schema in 2026.

Community Updates

On October 20, Rogue Scholar published a self-assessment using the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI), summarized below:

Major gaps exist in the areas of governance and sustainability, and work is underway to improve this. Stay tuned for a blog post next week.

The project Infra Wiss Blogs in October published two papers (one English and one German) studying science blogs in Germany. They found that the majority of science blog in Germany are from the Humanities and Social Sciences, in part because a large number of blogs from de.Hypotheses.

The Rogue Scholar Slack continues to have interesting discussions on a variety of topics. Please use Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky if you have any questions or comments regarding this monthly newsletter.

References

1. Fenner, M. (2025, October 27). Supporting blog contributions beyond authorship. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/9t6xx-kht30
2. Salmon, M., Bellini Saibene, Y., & LaZerte, S. (2025, October 14). Recognition Beyond Blog Post Authors. rOpenSci - Open Tools for Open Science. https://doi.org/10.59350/510pg-zzf58
3. Fenner, M. (2025, October 20). Rogue Scholar follows the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI). Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/m65a8-6sm21
4. Ochsner, C., & Pampel, H. (2025, October 26). Wissenschaftsblogs als integraler Bestandteil der Open-Access-Landschaft. Infra Wiss Blogs. https://doi.org/10.59350/0zep3-5px78
5. Ochsner, C., Pampel, H., Höfting, J., & Rothfritz, L. (2025). Scholarly blogs: An analysis of infrastructural aspects based on German scholarly blogs. Journal of Documentation, 81(7), 520–544. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2025-0053
6. Ochsner, C., Pampel, H., Höfting, J., & Rothfritz, L. (2025). Wissenschaftsblogs in Deutschland: Eine Analyse infrastruktureller Aspekte. Bibliothek Forschung Und Praxis. https://doi.org/10.1515/bfp-2025-0028

Rogue Scholar Newsletter November 2025

By Martin Fenner | December 5, 2025 | https://doi.org/10.53731/aa1rk-1xf54

This is the November issue of the monthly newsletter from the Rogue Scholar science blog archive. The newsletter reports on new blogs that have joined the platform, important technical updates in Rogue Scholar infrastructure, community updates, and other news relevant to Rogue Scholar users.

Blogs added to Rogue Scholar

Two blogs were added in November. Welcome! These two blogs have special meaning for me, as I am on the dblp Steering Committee, and Front Matter is an InvenioRDM project partner, with the software powering the Rogue Scholar repository platform. This brings the number of participating blogs to 187, and the number of archived posts to 47,882.

blog.dblp.org

A blog about the dblp computer science bibliography.
Information Systems, English.
https://blog.dblp.org/

Invenio Blog

Follow news and updates from the Invenio community.
Information Systems, English.
https://inveniosoftware.org/

Technical Updates

The focus of the technical work in November was on improving subject classification, described in detail in a blog post this week. Rogue Scholar is migrating from the OECD Fields of Science to the CWTS/OpenAlex subject classification and uses automatic topic classification based on blog post title and abstract. 7,695 blog posts have already been classified, with 28.8% having a score of at least 0.25. Those topics are being displayed and linked in Rogue Scholar:

Community Updates

Following the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI) self-assessment in October, Rogue Scholar in November started work on becoming a German non-profit organization in 2026. The process will take a few months, and many details have yet to be worked out.

Please use Slack, email, Mastodon, or Bluesky if you have any questions or comments.

References

1. Fenner, M. (2025, November 26). Rogue Scholar is improving subject classification. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/8gwcz-gv749
2. Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2024, January 24). An open approach for classifying research publications. Leiden Madtrics. https://doi.org/10.59350/qc0px-76778
3. Fenner, M. (2025, October 20). Rogue Scholar follows the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI). Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/m65a8-6sm21
4. Fenner, M. (2025, November 3). Rogue Scholar is becoming a German Non-Profit Organization. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.53731/rftfk-qv692