This document discusses the impact of social media in disseminating research. It begins by outlining traditional methods of publishing research such as submitting to journals which involves a peer review process. It then discusses how social media platforms are now being used to share and discuss research, providing examples like tweets predicting citations and search engine queries predicting disease outbreaks. Examples are given of academics using social media platforms like blogs, Twitter, YouTube and ResearchGate to engage wider audiences. Tips are provided on developing an effective social media strategy for research dissemination and impact.

1. The impact of social media
in the dissemination of
research
ROGER WATSON
Professor of Nursing
The University of Hull, UK

2. 2013

3. Submission
Peer
review
Revision
Re-
submission
Acceptance
Publication

5. 25/03/2016
How many of you have…
• …written a letter?
• …made a phone call?
• …sent an email?
• …sent a text (SMS/WhatsApp/WeChat/Messenger etc)?
• …posted on Facebook?
• …sent a tweet?
• …written a blog?
• …posted on YouTube?

6. 25/03/2016
How many of you have…
• …a website?
• …a Twitter site?
• …a Facebook site?
• …a LinkedIn profile?
• …a Google Scholar site?
• …an OrcID number?
• …a ResearchGate site?
• …a ResearcherID site?

7. INFODEMIOLOGY
(courtesy of Caleb Ferguson)
• Tweets predict citations
• Search engine queries predict influenza
• Tweets during the H1N1 pandemic correlated with
incidence rates
• Tweets about a movie accurately predict its success
at the box office prior to initial screening.

8. Can Tweets Predict Citations? Metrics of
Social Impact Based on Twitter and
Correlation with Traditional Metrics of
Scientific Impact
Gunther Eysenbach
JMIR (2011)
Highly tweeted articles were 11 times more likely to be highly
cited than less-tweeted articles (9/12 or 75% of highly tweeted
article were highly cited, while only 3/43 or 7% of less-tweeted
articles were highly cited; rate ratio 0.75/0.07 = 10.75, 95%
confidence interval, 3.4–33.6). Top-cited articles can be
predicted from top-tweeted articles with 93% specificity and
75% sensitivity.

9. The odds of an article being highly
cited were significantly increased by a
mention in social media; OR 2.58,
p<0.001

10. 25/03/2016
Altmetrics
In scholarly and scientific publishing, Altmetrics are new
metrics proposed as an alternative to the widely used
journal impact factor and personal citation indices like the
h-index.
(Wikipedia)

11. 25/03/2016

12. But do you feel like this?
I just don’t
get Twitter

15. 25/03/2016
A blog (short for ‘weblog) is a website containing a writer’s
or a group of writers’ own experiences, observations,
opinions, etc. and often having images and links to other
websites.
(adapted from Dictionary.com)

20. 25/03/2016
The largest video sharing site on the Web. YouTube lets
anyone upload short videos for private or public viewing.
(PC News)
• 20 hours of video uploaded every minute
• 100 years of video uploaded every day

21. Podcasting

23. 10 top tips for academics on blogging and
social media (Matthew Reisz, THE 2015)
• Think through carefully exactly what you want to achieve by
engaging with social media
• Consider producing social media content as a normal part of
your working life
• Develop a sense of the advantages and limitations of each
different platform
• Be realistic about the time available to you – it may be more
effective to engage on one platform than to spread yourself
across many

24. 10 top tips for academics on blogging and
social media
• Be aware of who might see what you are publishing online,
but don’t become paralysed by overestimating your visibility
and the potential risks that come from this
• Make your blogs easier to find and navigate by tagging and
categorising the contents
• Always include details of your blog in any conference
presentations
• Make sure all your friends, colleagues and collaborators
know about your blog

25. 10 top tips for academics on blogging and
social media
• Set up automated links on Twitter to announce each new
blogpost – and allow people to subscribe to your blogs by
email
• If you use Twitter to promote a blog post, make sure the title
is clear and self-explanatory.

26. What did people say about social networking in
REF impact templates?

28. Mentions of social media
• Twitter 233
• Blog 678
• Podcast 214
• YouTube 340
• You Tube 1013

29. CAMBRIDGE
The Naked Scientists programme is syndicated internationally
by national networks in several countries including Australia
(on the ABC) and South Africa, reaching a combined live
weekly radio audience of over 1 million people. The
programme is also distributed globally via the intranet with
over 22 million downloads in the past 4 years and it has won
many prizes including the Society for General Microbiology's
Peter Wildy Prize 2008, the Royal Society Kohn Award for
2008, the Best Radio Show Award at the Population Institute's
29th Global Media Awards, 2008, the European Podcast
Award for UK Non-Profit podcast, the inaugural Royal College
of Pathologists Furness Prize for science communication 2010
and the Society of Biology Science Communication Prize 2012.

30. EDINBURGH
Highly successful public engagement lecture series such as the
“Edinburgh Medical Detectives” are provided regularly for
national and international audiences through podcasting and
via YouTube (>35000 hits to date). Regular strategic
engagement with patient groups, for example, from the
Multiple Sclerosis Society, the British Heart Foundation,
Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, CR-UK, Arthritis
Research Council and Maggie’s Cancer Centre, ensures our
researchers are in touch with their patient ‘user groups’ and
funders, promoting and delivering information relating to
research output, impact and care.

31. OXFORD
Research is communicated through the press office and by
interview, writing and public meetings, as well as engagement
and outreach activities in the local community. During the
REF2014 period, UoA1 researchers have given over 50 public
seminars and talks each year, and published more than 70
blogs, podcasts and lectures with greater than 500,000
downloads.

32. Making it work
• Don’t run your social networking sites in isolation
• Develop a strategy for promoting your work and profile
• Decide what your essential content is
• Decide how you are going to get it ‘out there’

33. Link your social networking sites - COLLATERAL
Website
YouTube
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog
Publications
& Metrics
email
Send to
Embed in
Public
SelectedPublic
Public
Public

35. 2015

36. r.watson@hull.ac.uk
0000-0001-8040-7625
@rwatson1955
@jadvnursing
@nursingopen