1. Social Media and Research
16th January 2013
Jenny Foreman
Morag Higgison
Scottish Government
2.
3. What is social media used for?
collect and organise information
share information
find people
talk to people
collaborate (internally and externally)
7. Negatives
• Where do I start?
• Information overload
• Too time consuming – yet another thing to do
• Too personal
• Irrelevant information
• Why make mistakes in public?
8. Positives
• Researchers already network in organisations,
at conferences, via email
• Researchers have always exchanged and
disseminated information (though often not until
published format)
• Provides feedback during research
• Can help build your academic reputation
• There are a great many social media tools which
are free, easy to use and are just another
means to do the same thing that you have
already been doing collaborating, engaging
with others, sharing ideas and information
54. Data Collection
and Analysis
• Most social media tools have their own
free analytics tools
• Corporate organisations often purchase
data collection tools
• Cross platform analysis is in infancy
• “An Introduction to Social Media Analytics”
http://vimeo.com/57241964
57. University of Glasgow Social Media Policy
http://www.gla.ac.uk/about/interact/terms
University of Glasgow Social Media Guidance
http://www.gla.ac.uk/staff/communicationstoolkit
58. Summary
• Choose the best tools for you and experiment
• Don’t get hung up on the technology
• Find out what your colleagues use
• Decide if and how you want to collate and
analyse your data
• Remember your digital identity
• Don’t forget to follow your organisation’s social
media guidance and policy
• Don’t say anything on social media that you
wouldn’t say in public
59. Add picture on desktop
• It doesn’t matter how many resources you
have if you don’t know how to use them it
will never be enough.
60. Jenny Foreman
Jenny.Foreman@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Morag Higgison
Morag.Higgison@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Scottish Government Library Blog
http://sglibraryservices.wordpress.com/
University of Glasgow Library Social Media Contact
Heather.Worlledge-Andrew@glasgow.ac.uk
Editor's Notes
Brief overview of what social media you can use as a researcher or academic. Audience is University of Glasgow, Institute of Health & Wellbeing, Maurice Bloch Lecture Series 2013 Presenters Morag Higgison ,Enquiries & Research Librarian, Jenny Foreman Information Literacy & Training Librarian, Scottish Government.
Although we ’re looking at various social media tools and platforms the Scottish Government does not endorse any
What is social media used for? collect and organise information share information find people talk to people collaborate (internally and externally) One of the most important things that researchers do is to find, use and disseminate information, and social media offers a range of tools which can facilitate this
Social media is all about sharing as you can see Universities are now using social media to engage internal and external communities directly. Have given universities an opportunity to speak to audiences, reaching thousands of people interested in keeping up to date with news on what ’s happening at the university We ’ll show you some examples.
.
Steph Gray, MD, Helpful Technology: digital engagement & social media crisis comms via @ socialsimulator devised this table to explain how we use social media to engage in government Former public sector head of digital. UKGovcamp co-organiser. London · http://www.helpfultechnology.com devised this table to explain how we use social media to engage in government.
Positives: • Researchers have always exchanged and disseminated information (though often not until published format) • Researchers already network in organisations, at conferences, via email • There are a great many social media tools which are free, easy to use and are just another means to do the same thing that you have already been doing, collaborating, engaging with others, sharing information etc • Can help inform every step of the research process • making data easier to share, verify and re-use - facilitating more open scientific practices • Provides feedback during research • A tool for building academic reputation
“ If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0” covers at the extent of adoption of social media in different subject fields and disciplines, and the different types of researchers who are using them. Also RIN “ Social Media: A guide for researchers ”
JISC? “We drive innovation in UK education and research, and have been doing so for more than 15 years. They are a registered charity and work on behalf of UK higher education, further education and skills to champion the use of digital technologies. Historically, JISC stood for Joint Information Systems Committee but over the last decade we have evolved and as a company we are now known as Jisc.”
Esther Barratt JISC RSC Wales. Esther Barratt works for JISC RSC Wales and supports the ACL and Voluntary Sector with Learning Using Technology. She is based at Swansea University, but spends a lot of time on the road. She loves technology and wishes she had known more about it when she was teaching in the community. Her PhD is about 'bilingual community learners and their attitudes around literacy and learning using technology.' She has been working on it for five years and it's all coming together. She should finish it in 2013 with luck, support and determination. @ estherbarrett on Twitter
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2012/researchers-of-tomorrow.aspx. Reference: Social Media: A guide for researchers ”
“ 23 things for Research ” by University of Oxford is a self-directed course, that “ aims to expose you to a range of digital tools that could help you in your personal and professional development as a researcher, academic, student or in another role. ”
Source: Research information network: Social media: Social Media a guide for Researchers Feb 2011. Stage 1 is Identification of Knowledge e.g undertaking literature reviews using peer reviewed sources.
Scottish Government Library Netvibes pages is an example of a homepage you can ‘share’ with colleagues http ://www.netvibes.com/sglibraryservices#Welcome Each tab reflects the Scottish Government subject topics.
Example of Scottish Government Library Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com/sglibraryservices#Welcome Health and Community Care page
http://www.netvibes.com/sglibraryservices#Welcome Scottish Government Library Netvibes. You can sign up for emailed alerts from Netvibes.
Example of a relevant blog. LSE Impact of Social Sciences website has various LSE bloggers on it discussing their research. Example of academic blog usually archive old postings, which can be searched for terms in the archive. Blogs have become a vibrant, fast-growing medium for communication in professional, political, news and other specialized internet communities
Example of a relevant blog. PhD blog(dot) Net
Twitter social media tool – microblog – 140 characters Search under # for Example of #phd staff and students using Twitter for knowledge creation.
Vitae Twitter • brings together experts, policy makes, employers and those working with researches to develop policy and practice - to make real and positive change.
Slideshare. Scottish Government colleague Lesley Thomson’s presentation on social media and research and collaboration
Google scholar
Microsoft Academic Search
Social search engines for searching social media - Addict-o-matic
Social search engines for searching social media - Inboxlistening
“ Creation of knowledge by professional researchers usually behind closed doors” Social Media: A guide for researchers, Research Information Network (RIN) 2011
Higher Education Network blog on Guardian newspaper.
Example of a researcher from University of Bournemouth using Youtube to talk about his research. You can post comments under Youtube videos which is another means to receive feedback.
Soundcloud example from the Scottish Government website. The SG uses this as part of its accessibility policy.
Example of “Great War Archive’ by University of Oxford. NB Remember Copyright. If you have any queries regarding copyright issues then contact University of Glasgow Library for help.
Creating Knowledge – another way of doing this it to have a look at an organisation’s Twitter account. Univ of Glasgow Twitter feed Morag found a lot of useful information via the Glasgow Uni Twitter account. Useful for links, news, development etc – Glasgow university has a twitter page. Currently 22,577 followers, 2,205 tweets
@Television2pt0 follows you Rhiannon Bury is an Associate Professor at Athabasca University, Canada's Open University. Researching shifting patterns of TV viewing and participatory culture. Toronto, Canada · http://rhiannonbury.org
Example of Hootsuite page
“ Quality assurance of knowledge e.g. peer review and filtering the best for publication.” Social Media: A guide for researchers, Research Information Network (RIN) 2011
Example of social bookmarking from Scottish Government Library ’s list of useful links on Netvouz which is used for Scottish Government training.
Example of social bookmarking tool, Delicious.
Example of social bookmarking tool Diigo.
“ Academics use Academia.edu to peer review and share their research, monitor their the impact of their research, and track the research of academics they follow. ”
Louise Connolly – “ following the online world through blogs, websites, and Twitter. Co-founder Virtual Worlds Research Network @ vwrn . Involved with @ SLACTIONS @ ProjectRS Scotland · http://virtualbuddhism.blogspot.com/ “ @lconnelly09 on Twitter
“ Dissemination of knowledge e.g publication, presentation at conference. ” Social Media: A guide for researchers, Research Information Network (RIN) 2011
Online collaborative spaces used by the Scottish Government.
The Knowledge Hub https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/
Jenny Foreman ’ s example of ‘ Groups ’ page on the Knowledge Hub https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/
Example of Yammer, collaborative platform used internally by Scottish Government staff.
Linkedin
Scottish Government “Engage for Education” on facebook
Example. Dr Dave Price, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at University of Edinburgh. Building Brains is his facebook page.
Example of Pinterest. Sheila Webber
Citeulike
.
“ An Introduction to Social Media Analytics” http://vimeo.com/57241964
Example of a disclaimer. Steph Gray ’s personal blog with a disclaimer.
We ’ll put our presentation and useful links on our SG Library blog and on Slideshare Useful links Conferences and seminars http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/315321/Digital-Researcher.html