Karen Sturgill presents on the social media site Academia.edu. Academia.edu is defined as a social media network for academics to share research papers and interests. It has over 10.5 million members who can upload papers, read others' work, and find researchers with similar interests. Unlike sites like Facebook, Academia.edu has a more serious focus on research sharing between academics.

1. Hi. My name is Karen Sturgill, and this is my presentation on Social Media. My social
medial network is Academia.edu.
1

2. Whatis.com (2014) defines social media as “the collective of online communication
channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and
collaboration” (Definition: Social media, para. 1).
2

3. Whatis.com (2014) defines social media as “the collective of online communication
channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and
collaboration.” (Definition: Social media, para. 1)
Some of the most popular social media sites include fast past interactions and posts.
Such sites as Facebook and Twitter come to mind as examples of this kind of social
media network. But not all sites need to be as fast paced. There can still be
thousands or millions of uses who interact at a much more relaxed pace.
Academia.edu is one such site.
3

4. Academia.edu is a place where academics can share their research papers, research
interests and research ideas. (Academia.edu, 2014).
4

5. This social media site may not have the visual bells and whistles that other sites
might have, but it does have the academic bells and whistles of research.
Since the goal of the company is to promote the sharing of information and research,
I can understand why this site might have a more somber feel than other sites.
Academia.edu reports that over 10.5 million researchers, faculty, students, and
others interested in academic research currently have an account with the site. The
site has global appeal and over “15.7 million” (Academia.edu, 2014, “About
academia.edu”, para. 2) different people from around the world visit the site each
month. The site also reports to have nearly three million papers have been uploaded
and are available on the site. Members of the academic.edu community have
identified approximately 1.2 million research topics.
The site tracks visits to the users page and papers. This kind of analytics helps
researchers understand the reach of their work.
5

6. Users can link to other social medial profiles to see if “friends” from those sites might
also be on Academia.edu. You never know who might be using the site.
6

7. When I allowed the program to look through my Facebook friends, I was surprised to
find that a cousin of mine is also an Academic.com member. She is a faculty member
at an institution of higher learning in Charleston, SC.
7

8. Like other social media sites, Academia.edu allows users to send personal messages
to other users.
8

9. Most, if not all, of the social media sites I have been to have allowed uses to “post”.
Posting is a way to express yourself to others. In Academia.edu the messages are
posted to a general message board. This is a means to expand research interests. I
posted a topic about my possible dissertation topic, but not surprisingly, I have not
received any responses to my post. My planned dissertation topic is Change Fatigue
in Higher Education, although the title might be different. The concept of “change
fatigue” is not widely written about, and it is because the amount of literature is so
limited that I am not surprised by the lack of response.
9

10. Like other social media sites, the user can share photos and other information about
himself or herself. The user can even upload their Curriculum Vitae - CV. And most
importantly, users can upload their research articles or papers to the site.
It should be noted that within the last year there has been some controversy over the
articles that appear on the site. Many users upload pdf versions of previously
published papers, and depending on the publisher, and the publishing agreement
restrictions – if there were any – some publishers feel that posting the papers here
takes revenue out of their pocket. To help resolve this issue, Academia.edu will take
down any papers upon written request. Elsevier was one such publisher that recently
requested a large number of papers to be removed. But other publishers understand
the value of research sharing. Authors can avoid this dilemma at the time the
publishing contract is drawn by ensuring they retain the rights to share the paper as
they see fit.
10

11. As previously mentioned, the site has an “Analytics” page for every user. This
analytics allows the use to see how many viewers and followers are interested in
their research.
As you can see, I have had only one view – my cousin. I suspect that if I choose to
upload papers in the future, that my Analytics might be different.
11

12. The program allows the user to specify research interests at set up. This can be
amended at a later date. Once the user’s page is established, the system will guide
the user to other researchers who might have the same research interest. If the
other person has uploaded papers or articles, the user will be able to see the titles on
the researchers page, and even click them if they’d like.
12

13. Users are able to read the articles on-line and/or download them as pdf. This article
is one that relates to my dissertation topic that I had not previously found using any
of the other search means I have attempted.
13

14. Users can also choose to bookmark the article as one that is of interest to their
research area.
14

15. Like other social media networks, the user is able to follow people of their choosing.
Academia.edu allowed me to see Kim McMillan’s actions. She is the author of the
article that matches my research interest. By knowing who she follows or what
papers she post, I may be able to find addition researchers with interests similar to
my own.
15

16. So, if you are looking for a social network of academics and you want to add a
potential article repertoire of resource, or you have an article or articles that you
would like to share, then go to Academia.edu and become a member.
I hope this presentation has been interesting to you, and I hope that you were able to
view it and hear it without a glitch on this Google+ posting.
16

17. These are my references
17