In response to static, neglected lab websites that have become the norm, a Princeton scientist (Ethan O. Perlstein) has personally invested in the design of a site that will inspire fellow academics to openly share their research. In addition, with his academic appointment coming to an end, http://perlsteinlab.com/ is a great way to establish a personal brand.

The site allows visitors to browse through automatically updated chunks of reorganisable content, which range from Perlstein’s blog, his papers from Mendeley and PLoS , research outputs from figshare and short updates from Twitter.

The website enables users to filter this content according to their own interests and readjusts automatically according to  browser size (which is good fun to play with). Additional functionality includes active discussion threads powered by Disqus and social media statistics pulled in from altmetric. Mendeley statistics are also displayed at the side of papers, gathering the total number of readers and then both geographical and demographic breakdowns.

Perlstein is considering making the site open source so that other researchers can use his design as a template to promote their work, encourage continual discussion of research on a global scale and enhance scientific outreach to the public.