Tinkler, J. (2013) 'Openness and Impact in Academia Using Social Media'. Presentation to the Critical Perspectives on ‘Open-ness’ in the Digital University conference,
Edinburgh University, November 2012.
2012.06.07 Maximising the Impact of Social Sciences ResearchNUI Galway
Jane Tinkler, Public Policy Group Manager, Impact of Social Science Project at London School of Economics presented this seminar "Maximising the Impact of Social Sciences Research" as part of the Whitaker Institute Seminar Series at the Whitaker Institute on 7th June 2012.
A1 Workshop introduction: Future Technologies and Their Applicationslisbk
Slides for a 1-day workshop on "Future Technologies and Their Applications" facilitated by Brian Kelly and Tony Hirst at the ILI 2013 conference on Monday 14 October 2013.
See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ili-2013-workshop/
The exponential growth of social media and ubiquitous use of mobile technology has changed the way we communicate both socially and for many also professionally. It is therefore timely to consider how social media can be used to develop personal learning networks and through open sharing find opportunities to also develop our scholarly practice.
This presentation was given as a public lecture at the Open University of Catalonia Edul@b, Barcelona Growth Centre
@UOCuniversitat @edulab
Networked Scholars, or, Why on earth do academics use social media and why ...George Veletsianos
This workshop is divided in 2 parts. In the first part, I will discuss how/why academics use social media and online networks for scholarship, and explore the opportunities and tensions that exist in these spaces. In the second part of the workshop, I will facilitate small group and large group conversations on this topic based on participant interests. Potential topics of exploration may include but are not limited to: social media participation strategies; self-disclosures on social media; capturing and analyzing social media data; ethics of social media research; social media use for networked learning.
Library Connect Webinar - Calculating sharing metrics: Possible approaches Library_Connect
This presentation from Lorraine Estelle, Director, Project Counter, was part of the Dec. 3, 2015 Library Connect Webinar, How researchers share articles: impact on library resources and services.
View the webinar recording: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/library-connect-webinars?commid=167539
Find out more about the Beyond Downloads project: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/beyond-downloads
NeuroDevNet NCE in collaboration with York University's KMb Unit reviewed and assessed existing guides for researchers to use social media for dissemination of research finding and engaging with their stakeholders (end users). The guides are ranked from beginner to advanced, and are presented in an annotated bibliography format which also indicates platforms/tools reviewed in each guide.
Library Connect Webinar - The secret life of articles: From download metrics ...Library_Connect
This presentation from Suzie Allard, Associate Dean for Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was part of the Dec. 3, 2015 Library Connect Webinar, How researchers share articles: impact on library resources and services.
View the webinar recording: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/library-connect-webinars?commid=167539
Find out more about the Beyond Downloads project: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/beyond-downloads
2012.06.07 Maximising the Impact of Social Sciences ResearchNUI Galway
Jane Tinkler, Public Policy Group Manager, Impact of Social Science Project at London School of Economics presented this seminar "Maximising the Impact of Social Sciences Research" as part of the Whitaker Institute Seminar Series at the Whitaker Institute on 7th June 2012.
A1 Workshop introduction: Future Technologies and Their Applicationslisbk
Slides for a 1-day workshop on "Future Technologies and Their Applications" facilitated by Brian Kelly and Tony Hirst at the ILI 2013 conference on Monday 14 October 2013.
See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ili-2013-workshop/
The exponential growth of social media and ubiquitous use of mobile technology has changed the way we communicate both socially and for many also professionally. It is therefore timely to consider how social media can be used to develop personal learning networks and through open sharing find opportunities to also develop our scholarly practice.
This presentation was given as a public lecture at the Open University of Catalonia Edul@b, Barcelona Growth Centre
@UOCuniversitat @edulab
Networked Scholars, or, Why on earth do academics use social media and why ...George Veletsianos
This workshop is divided in 2 parts. In the first part, I will discuss how/why academics use social media and online networks for scholarship, and explore the opportunities and tensions that exist in these spaces. In the second part of the workshop, I will facilitate small group and large group conversations on this topic based on participant interests. Potential topics of exploration may include but are not limited to: social media participation strategies; self-disclosures on social media; capturing and analyzing social media data; ethics of social media research; social media use for networked learning.
Library Connect Webinar - Calculating sharing metrics: Possible approaches Library_Connect
This presentation from Lorraine Estelle, Director, Project Counter, was part of the Dec. 3, 2015 Library Connect Webinar, How researchers share articles: impact on library resources and services.
View the webinar recording: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/library-connect-webinars?commid=167539
Find out more about the Beyond Downloads project: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/beyond-downloads
NeuroDevNet NCE in collaboration with York University's KMb Unit reviewed and assessed existing guides for researchers to use social media for dissemination of research finding and engaging with their stakeholders (end users). The guides are ranked from beginner to advanced, and are presented in an annotated bibliography format which also indicates platforms/tools reviewed in each guide.
Library Connect Webinar - The secret life of articles: From download metrics ...Library_Connect
This presentation from Suzie Allard, Associate Dean for Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was part of the Dec. 3, 2015 Library Connect Webinar, How researchers share articles: impact on library resources and services.
View the webinar recording: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/library-connect-webinars?commid=167539
Find out more about the Beyond Downloads project: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/beyond-downloads
Understanding Networked Scholars: Experiences and practices in online social ...George Veletsianos
Slides from an invited talk given to the The 4th International Conference on E-learning and Distance Education located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Online journals, online forums, and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are an integral part of open and digital scholarship, which is often seen as a major breakthrough in radically rethinking the ways in which knowledge is created and shared. In this presentation I situate networked practices in open/digital scholarship and explain what scholars and professors do online, and, why they do the things that the do. I conclude by describing 3 themes pervasive in scholarly networks: identify networks, networks of conflict, and networks of disclosure.
The proliferation of communication technologies is profoundly changing the nature of academic practice. In this presentation I describe the impact of blogging and social networking tools on the practice and dissemination of academic research across disciplinary boundaries. I suggest that the traditional notion of the university is giving way to communities of scholars who are not tied to particular institutions, and less dependent on traditional forms of dissemination and publication. The resulting ‘democratisation’ of academia is portrayed in terms of a tension between democracy and expert knowledge mediated by technology.
One prominent contemporary challenge for technologists is to understand the ongoing impact of technological change on academic communities. At The Open University, the Digital Scholarship research team is mapping the use of Twitter in order to better understand user engagement with these technologies. I will present headline findings from this research and discuss the implications for scholarly practice at the OU.
Working with students to make the most of digital - Jisc Digifest 2016Jisc
We know how important it is to engage learners in designing their digital learning experience, but how can universities and colleges make this work in practice, and at scale?
Participants will have the opportunity of hearing from two institutional case studies on student digital partnerships.
The session will help you reflect on where you are with your students’ digital experience, and plan your next steps.
Delivering online learning - are you ready? - Jisc Digifest 2016Jisc
This session will demonstrate the scaling up online learning diagnostic tool prototype and provide an overview of the new Jisc scaling up online learning guide to help users make the best of both resources.
The diagnostic tool takes users through key questions to help identify their personal readiness for creating, delivering or supporting online learning and provides links to useful resources and guides, based on a user’s results.
Emerging Practices in Open Online Learning EnvironmentsGeorge Veletsianos
In this talk, I describe a number of emerging practices associated with online learning, networked scholarship, and MOOCs. I bring together results from 3 upcoming studies to describe how online learning is an emerging practice, how the field is becoming more interdisciplinary, how learning analytics are becoming more pervasive, and how various experiences and practices (e.g., notetaking and the scheduling of online learning to fit adult life's realities) evade learning analytics methods.
This presentation was provided by October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions during the NISO update of the ALA Midwinter Conference, held from June 23rd to June 26th, 2009.
Keynote speech - Carole Goble - Jisc Digital Festival 2015Jisc
Carole Goble is a professor in the school of computer science at the University of Manchester.
In this keynote, Carole offered her insights into research data management and data centres.
Developing Digital Literacies through the Visitor and Resident Mapping Process Kay Hack
Following the use of the Visitor and Resident mapping process to explore the way students study online, two learning activities are illustrated which scaffold the development of digital literacies.
V Międzynarodowa Konferencja Naukowa Nauka o informacji (informacja naukowa) w okresie zmian Innowacyjne usługi informacyjne. Wydział Dziennikarstwa, Informacji i Bibliologii Katedra Informatologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa, 15 – 16 maja 2017
Slide set for members of Departement of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University 12 October 2015. How can social media play a part in your research and the communication of your research?
Seminar for LERN, Legal Education Research Network, UK, @ IALS, 28 Jan 2015, on the use of new media tools and the need for digital research literacies in legal education research.
Understanding Networked Scholars: Experiences and practices in online social ...George Veletsianos
Slides from an invited talk given to the The 4th International Conference on E-learning and Distance Education located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Online journals, online forums, and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are an integral part of open and digital scholarship, which is often seen as a major breakthrough in radically rethinking the ways in which knowledge is created and shared. In this presentation I situate networked practices in open/digital scholarship and explain what scholars and professors do online, and, why they do the things that the do. I conclude by describing 3 themes pervasive in scholarly networks: identify networks, networks of conflict, and networks of disclosure.
The proliferation of communication technologies is profoundly changing the nature of academic practice. In this presentation I describe the impact of blogging and social networking tools on the practice and dissemination of academic research across disciplinary boundaries. I suggest that the traditional notion of the university is giving way to communities of scholars who are not tied to particular institutions, and less dependent on traditional forms of dissemination and publication. The resulting ‘democratisation’ of academia is portrayed in terms of a tension between democracy and expert knowledge mediated by technology.
One prominent contemporary challenge for technologists is to understand the ongoing impact of technological change on academic communities. At The Open University, the Digital Scholarship research team is mapping the use of Twitter in order to better understand user engagement with these technologies. I will present headline findings from this research and discuss the implications for scholarly practice at the OU.
Working with students to make the most of digital - Jisc Digifest 2016Jisc
We know how important it is to engage learners in designing their digital learning experience, but how can universities and colleges make this work in practice, and at scale?
Participants will have the opportunity of hearing from two institutional case studies on student digital partnerships.
The session will help you reflect on where you are with your students’ digital experience, and plan your next steps.
Delivering online learning - are you ready? - Jisc Digifest 2016Jisc
This session will demonstrate the scaling up online learning diagnostic tool prototype and provide an overview of the new Jisc scaling up online learning guide to help users make the best of both resources.
The diagnostic tool takes users through key questions to help identify their personal readiness for creating, delivering or supporting online learning and provides links to useful resources and guides, based on a user’s results.
Emerging Practices in Open Online Learning EnvironmentsGeorge Veletsianos
In this talk, I describe a number of emerging practices associated with online learning, networked scholarship, and MOOCs. I bring together results from 3 upcoming studies to describe how online learning is an emerging practice, how the field is becoming more interdisciplinary, how learning analytics are becoming more pervasive, and how various experiences and practices (e.g., notetaking and the scheduling of online learning to fit adult life's realities) evade learning analytics methods.
This presentation was provided by October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions during the NISO update of the ALA Midwinter Conference, held from June 23rd to June 26th, 2009.
Keynote speech - Carole Goble - Jisc Digital Festival 2015Jisc
Carole Goble is a professor in the school of computer science at the University of Manchester.
In this keynote, Carole offered her insights into research data management and data centres.
Developing Digital Literacies through the Visitor and Resident Mapping Process Kay Hack
Following the use of the Visitor and Resident mapping process to explore the way students study online, two learning activities are illustrated which scaffold the development of digital literacies.
V Międzynarodowa Konferencja Naukowa Nauka o informacji (informacja naukowa) w okresie zmian Innowacyjne usługi informacyjne. Wydział Dziennikarstwa, Informacji i Bibliologii Katedra Informatologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa, 15 – 16 maja 2017
Slide set for members of Departement of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University 12 October 2015. How can social media play a part in your research and the communication of your research?
Seminar for LERN, Legal Education Research Network, UK, @ IALS, 28 Jan 2015, on the use of new media tools and the need for digital research literacies in legal education research.
This is a basic overview of several social media platforms as well as specific guidance for creating or improving the visibility of your research profile. Created for the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow.
The open academic: Why and how business academics should use social media to ...Ian McCarthy
Abstract: The mission of many business schools and their researchers is to produce research that that impacts how business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, and innovators, think and act. However, this mission remains an elusive ideal for many business school academics because they struggle to design and produce research capable of overcoming the "research-practice gap." To help those scholars address this gap, we explain why and how they should use social media to be more 'open' to connecting with, learning from, and working with academics and other stakeholders outside of their field. We describe how social media can be used as a boundary-spanning technology to help bridge the research-practice gap. To do this, we present a process model of five research activities: networking, framing, investigating, dissemination, and assessment. Using recently published research as an illustrative example, we describe how social media was used to make each activity more open. We conclude with a framework of different social media-enabled open academic approaches (connector, observer, promoter, and influencer) and some dos and don'ts for engaging in each approach. This paper aims to help business academics rethink and change their practices so that our profession is more widely regarded for how its research positively impacts practice and societal well-being more generally.
Social Networking, Online Communities & Research - WCHRI RoundsColleen Young
This presentation explores how researchers can leverage the social web throughout all stages of research from study design, recruitment and through to knowledge dissemination and integrated KT. Colleen Young discusses the synergies of online communities and research, the people who lead and manage the communities and researchers. The presenter encourages discussion throughout the presentation and will tailor its flow to the attendees' knowledge and participation.
Effective use of academic and social media networks for endorsing publicationsSC CTSI at USC and CHLA
Do you know how to effectively promote your publications? Researchers need to ensure that their research study has gained maximum visibility for both, significant impact on the academic community and increased citation count. “Digital networking” is a powerful means through which the academic community can boost the reach of their study. This webinar will give a detailed overview of the recommended strategies for effective research promotion on academic and social media platforms and optimizing visibility of the published articles.
After this webinar, researchers will have a better understanding of the following:
Understanding the significance of research promotion
Overview of traditional ways of research promotion
Popular academic and social media networks
Choosing the right channel for promotion
Drawbacks of using social media for academic purposes
Measuring the impact of the applied promotional strategy
The presentation provides reasons for using social media in research activities and communication. Various social media are linked to the Research Life Cycle.
The original presentation was held at a research group meeting at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, June 2014.
Online Teaching and Learning
It is one of the most popular types of distance education
It continues to increase for the broader students
It is a part of E-learning
Online teaching is very common for secondary and higher education programs.
The population and institutions that use online learning increased over the last years.
What is Online Teaching and Learning?
Online teaching is a way to escape from the traditional classes.
Join a course or an institution which is far away from you
Study when you want, 24 hour a day and
Be more independent for your learning in your life.
Benefits from online teaching
The only thing that you have to do as a student is to have an access to a computer and Internet.
Computer is the main tool for reading and evaluation
Based on online software that includes different tools and functions
For Online teaching content is delivered synchronously and/or asynchronously.
The content is usually provides as digital textbooks and handouts, or videos etc.
Course content developed by week, section etc,
Tools and Content
Instructors have to guide students from “the other side”
They have a different and supporting role
They use email, forums, discussion boards or instant messaging to contact, interact or evaluate their students
Design and build their courses based on online software that includes different tools and functions that are easy and useful for learners.
Teacher - Instructor
Students have their own responsibilities
They have to develop their new knowledge as they interact with the online environment.
Students use their computer online to interact with their instructor
Their evaluations essays, poster, presentation have to deliver online and digital to their teachers.
Student - Learners
7
Virtual Teams and Protecting Information Assets- Case 4
The Case Assignment for this module involves your analysis of what is known, somewhat known, not known, or "known" but wrong in the area of the management of virtual teams. Since this phenomenon is relatively new, there isn't a large body of knowledge specifically about such teams. Most of the advice floating around about virtual teams comes from one or more of four types of sources:
· The small number of academically respectable research studies on virtual teams
· The very large body of research done on the management of teams generally (dating back to the 1930s and of somewhat questionable generalizability due to differences in tools, culture, society, and just about everything else)
· The modest but steadily increasing body of informal or "practice wisdom" information, generally made available through blogs or other Internet sources
· The quite large body of essentially uninformed but ready-to-be-shared opinion about the topic, also Internet-available
The first two bodies of information are generally easy to identify and distinguish; they'll be found in academic journals, conference transactions, and other such sourc.
Today research visibility is very important in an otherwise crowded digital environment. Here the concept of visibility generated and visibility earned is explained.
Social media for researchers: Increase your research competitiveness using We...Xavier Lasauca i Cisa
In this workshop, adressed to P-Sphere project researchers (European Postdoctoral Research Project, Marie S. Curie Actions, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 28th November 2017) I summarised the benefits which can be gained from use of social media (specially blogs, Twitter and other social networks and repositories) to support research activities, and I provided examples of these innovative emerging resources as tools for scientific communication as well as discussed their implications for digital scholarship. Structure of the lecture: Introduction, Altmetrics, It's Europe!, Active listening, Blogging, Microblogging, Networking, Sharing, Health 2.0, Resources, Strategy, The ten commandments, To deepen, Conclusions.
Similar to Using social media to disseminate academic work (20)
Social media for researchers: Increase your research competitiveness using We...
Using social media to disseminate academic work
1. Openness and Impact in
Academia Using Social
Media
Jane Tinkler, LSE Public Policy Group
London School of Economics
Critical Perspectives on ‘Open-ness’ in the Digital University,
Edinburgh University, November 2012
2. Traditional academic communication is
fairly ‘closed’
• Core set of journal articles, conference papers, books and
chapters, and occasional book reviews.
• Journal articles and books are read by some in your field,
but don’t often break into other disciplines and are rarely
picked up by the media.
• The texts of books and articles are inaccessible to those
without subscription/library access.
• Outputs are often fairly long and in language that is
sometimes meaningful only to other academics.
• This reflects a one-way (experts only) communications
process.
3. Digital academic communication can be
more ‘open’
• Growth of ejournal subscriptions and ebooks that can be
accessed simultaneously by student groups as well as
those working off-site.
• University websites and online depositories host
academic research for those outside the academy who
want to read them.
• The ‘academic spring’ pressure for research to be open
access has gathered pace and now some funders and the
UK government are supporting this move.
• Universities and academics are taking up opportunities
provided by social media for communication and
dissemination on the back of the ‘impact agenda’.
4. How does using social media help make
your research more ‘open’?
1. Put very simply, it allows more people to read your research.
5. A teamfrom the World Bank examined the influence of
economicblogs on download figuresfor articles
6. A teamfrom NCRM compared the effectof twitterand
othercommunication channels on a paper’s downloads
8. How does using social media help make
your research more ‘open’?
1. Put very simply, it allows more people to read your research.
2. This is especially the case for some disciplines and some
sectors where debates are increasingly taking place online.
9. Overall11% of externalreferencesto academicworkin
our datasetwere from blogs
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Economics
IR
Business/Management
Geography
Political Science
Sociology
Social Policy
Anthropology
Law
History
Psychology
Philosophy
Media
% external refs from blogs
10. Referencesto academicworkin blogs vary widelyby
sector
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Government
Think tanks
Private sector
Media/press
Civil society
% external refs from blogs
11. How does using social media help make
your research more ‘open’?
1. Put very simply, it allows more people to read your research.
2. This is especially the case for some disciplines and some
sectors where debates are increasingly taking place online.
3. It also helps you to read more (or more wisely) within your
discipline, as well as in ‘near’ subjects.
4. Which can lead to increased collaborations with other
academics outside your usual networks. Our research has
shown cross-disciplinary, multi-authored and multi-
institutional works have more impact.
12. Collaboration leads to increased citations
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 or
more
NumberofOutputs
Number of Co-authors
Co-authorship and
Number of Outputs
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 or
more
Citationsreceived
Number of Co-authors
Co-authorship and
Citations
Most outputs in our dataset
were single authored, but
more cites went to outputs
that had at least one other
author
13. How does using social media help make
your research more ‘open’?
1. Put very simply, it allows more people to read your research.
2. This is especially the case for some disciplines and some
sectors where debates are increasingly taking place online.
3. It also helps you to read more (or more wisely) within your
discipline, as well as in ‘near’ subjects.
4. Which can lead to increased collaborations with other
academics outside your usual networks. Our research has
shown multi-authored, multi-institutional works have more
impact.
5. Being part of an academic online community = event
publicity, support, guidance, fact-checking and more.
14. Open-ness and impact
1. The first step towards creating impact is making your
research more open and visible.
2. Use freely available tools to create a public profile for you
and your work.
16. Open-ness and impact
1. The first step towards impact is making your research more
open and visible.
2. Use freely available tools to create a public profile for you
and your work.
3. Make full use of your university’s resources (like online
depositories, Expert directories, knowledge transfer
schemes).
4. Build communication and dissemination plans into research
projects early on.
5. Work with stakeholders and intermediary organisations to
help make your research more open.
6. BUT be realistic as to what you can expect.
17. Just over a quarter of academic references
were from external sources
University departments (20%)
Academic
publishers
and journals
(20%)
All libraries
(14%)
Digital aggregators (4%)
Academic
assocs. and
societies
(7%)
Independent
think tanks
(4%)
Media and
press
(5%)
Civil society and third
sector
(7%)
Govt & policy
(5%)
Private
sector
(3%)
Individs
(4%)
Univ.
centres
and
instits.
(7%)
Digital
research
databases
Academicresearchandengagement
18. Does ‘open-ness’ have drawbacks?
1. The focus on dissemination and impact can feel like a new
responsibility in addition to all the other things you do as an
academic.
19. Time pressures and lack of resources are real
constraints on open-ness and impact
Higher Education
Institution
Private / public / third
sector organisation
Lack of time
Bureaucracy and inflexibility of
HEI administration
Difficulties in identifying partners
Insufficient rewards and lack of
awareness of the benefits from
the interactions
Lack of understanding by
academics of the process
Capacity and capability of the KE
system still developing / evolving
Lack of resources within
external organisations to fund
the KE engagement
Insufficient benefits from the
interaction
Lack of interest by external
organisations and lack of
demand for KE
Intellectual property
agreements as a barrier to
some, albeit minority of, KE
engagement
Source: PACEC/CBR Survey of Academics (2008); PACEC/CBR Survey of
Enterprise Offices (2010); CBR Survey of Enterprises (2008)
20. Does ‘open-ness’ have drawbacks?
1. The focus on dissemination and impact can feel like a new
responsibility in addition to all the other things you do as an
academic.
2. If you start a blog or create a twitter feed for a project, you
need to keep these up which takes times and resources.
3. Being open with your research methods, stakeholders or
findings could place restrictions on what you feel you can
say.
4. Moderating the quality of discussion and debate via social
media tools can be hard. This can’t replace peer review but
some quality assurances can be built into how social media
is used.
5. You can receive instant feedback on your work, and it is all
public. Can be very nerve-wracking for individual academics
and universities.
21. For more see:
Maximising the Impacts of your Research: A handbook for social
scientists
Using Twitter in University Research, Teaching and
Impact Activities: A guide for academics and
researchers
Freely available to download from the
Impact of Social Sciences blog:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/
Email: impactofsocialsciences@lse.ac.uk
Twitter: @lseimpactblog
Facebook: Impact of Social Sciences
Editor's Notes
David McKenzie and Berk Özler (2011) ‘Academic blogs are proven to increase dissemination of economic research and improve impact.’ LSE Impact of Social Science blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/11/15/world-bank-dissemination/.15 November 2011.
Kaisa Puustinen and Rosalind Edwards (2012) ‘Who gives a tweet? After 24 hours and 860 downloads, we think quite a few actually do’. LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/05/18/who-gives-a-tweet-860-downloads/. 18 May
Terras, M. (2012) ‘The Impact of Social Media on the Dissemination of Research: Results of an Experiment’, Journal of Digital Humanities, 1 (3)http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-3/the-impact-of-social-media-on-the-dissemination-of-research-by-melissa-terras/
As part of the Impact of Social Sciences project, we have tracked the external impacts of 360 academics via their digital footprint. Across the 14,000 external to university references we found for this set of academics, overall 11% of them were from blogs.
Of the roughly 4,000 outputs that had been produced by our dataset of academics, the largest number were single authored publications. However, the outputs that had at least one other author received the most citations. We don’t really know why this is, but we assume its that the more authors, the more contacts and larger networks a research publication can be disseminated to. (This may change slightly across disciplines.)
Social media is now a major aspect of more traditional forms of academic communication such as event publicity. Podcasting lectures, live tweeting events as well as live and recording videostreams are all now used across universities. There has been some interesting debates on the blog on the positive and negative aspects of live tweeting events but definitely open up the discussion to a wider audience. We know that there is a great appetite out there for academic ideas. The LSE’s Public Lecture Programme podcasts all their lectures and now has over 19 million downloads per year (via the LSE site, iTunes U and YouTube) Finally, its tough times for academics. Social media can be used as a source of support and guidance for individual academics.