Purpose: This paper tries to understand the dynamics of scientific communication systems during crises by investigating as a case study the blogging activities that took place during the period of the 2011 earthquake and related events in Japan. Interactions between bloggers and registered users are studied quantitatively and qualitatively at Sciencenet.cn, an influential science-related blogosphere in China.

Design/methodology/approach: The editors of Sciencenet.cn compiled a special issue of science blog articles under the title Analysis of the Japanese Earthquake. We developed a spider program and downloaded from this special issue the metadata about title, content, publishing time, total read count, reply count and recommendation count, and further collected information about bloggers and recommenders. We then sent a short message to the bloggers who wrote articles on these emergencies, asking for their educational and professional background.

Findings: We found that knowledge reflected in the blog articles is strongly related to the educational and professional background of bloggers. Knowledge diffusion is facilitated by interactions, such as recommendations, comments and answers. Interactions via comments and recommendations are of an assortative nature: A blog article is more likely to be commented on and recommended by those bloggers who write on the same or similar topics than by those writing on a different one. Registered users tend to give comments on articles dealing with the topic that they recommend, and vice versa. Interaction in the intersection of two or three topics is more intense than that within one topic. The impact of blog articles is also influenced by other factors, such as the reputation of the blogger and the type of information they contain.

Implications and limitations: It is confirmed that studying blogs is a valid approach within informetric studies. Yet, we only studied one triple (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear disaster) event based on data originating from one Chinese blog website. More events should be studied.

Originality/value: Informetric studies based on blogs are still relatively few. Using science blogs and combining comments on a triple event with the knowledge background of bloggers in China is even less common. As such this contribution enhances our knowledge on this new form of science communication activity.

Purpose: This paper tries to understand the dynamics of scientific communication systems during crises by investigating as a case study the blogging activities that took place during the period of the 2011 earthquake and related events in Japan. Interactions between bloggers and registered users are studied quantitatively and qualitatively at Sciencenet.cn, an influential science-related blogosphere in China.

Design/methodology/approach: The editors of Sciencenet.cn compiled a special issue of science blog articles under the title Analysis of the Japanese Earthquake. We developed a spider program and downloaded from this special issue the metadata about title, content, publishing time, total read count, reply count and recommendation count, and further collected information about bloggers and recommenders. We then sent a short message to the bloggers who wrote articles on these emergencies, asking for their educational and professional background.

Findings: We found that knowledge reflected in the blog articles is strongly related to the educational and professional background of bloggers. Knowledge diffusion is facilitated by interactions, such as recommendations, comments and answers. Interactions via comments and recommendations are of an assortative nature: A blog article is more likely to be commented on and recommended by those bloggers who write on the same or similar topics than by those writing on a different one. Registered users tend to give comments on articles dealing with the topic that they recommend, and vice versa. Interaction in the intersection of two or three topics is more intense than that within one topic. The impact of blog articles is also influenced by other factors, such as the reputation of the blogger and the type of information they contain.

Implications and limitations: It is confirmed that studying blogs is a valid approach within informetric studies. Yet, we only studied one triple (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear disaster) event based on data originating from one Chinese blog website. More events should be studied.

Originality/value: Informetric studies based on blogs are still relatively few. Using science blogs and combining comments on a triple event with the knowledge background of bloggers in China is even less common. As such this contribution enhances our knowledge on this new form of science communication activity.