Social Media in Science Communication

Social Networks in
Science Communication
Dr. Ulrich Herb
scidecode science consulting
scidecode.com

Warm up
Please use sticky notes to introduce yourself
● Name
● Discipline
● Topics of particular interest to you

Social Networks in
Some terminology & keywords
Use and relevance of Social Media/ Networks in
science communication
Science-relevant Social Media/ Networks
Social Media/ networks as research tools
Social Media/ Networks as tools to disseminate
results and for self-marketing
Social Media/ Networks for networking
Summary and advices

Social Media
● are Web-based applications allowing participation with easy to use techniques
● enable content creation
● allow individuals & groups to create user-specific profiles
● facilitate the development of Social Networks online by connecting these profiles
● allow sharing and re-use of content
turn isolated consumers (known from the Web 1.0) into prosumers.
Obar, J. A., & Wildman, S. (2015). Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue.
Telecommunications Policy, 39(9), 745–750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2015.07.014

Social Networks
“We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1)
construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate
a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse
their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and
nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.”
boyd, danah m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, 13(1), 210–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x

Scholarly Communication/ Science Communication
= Communication of scientific content and scientific work, including
● internal science communication (journals, books, conferences)
● science journalism, science PR, communication with the public
Schäfer, M. S., Kristiansen, S., & Bonfadelli, H. (2015). Wissenschaftskommunikation im Wandel: Relevanz, Entwicklung und
Herausforderungen des Forschungsfeldes. In M. S. Schäfer, S. Kristiansen, & H. Bonfadelli (Hrsg.), Wissenschaftskommunikation im Wandel
(S. 10–42). Herbert von Halem.

Social Media & Science Communication

Some Findings: Peters & Mazarakis (Germany)
84.7% of the participants are using Wikipedia
63.4% ... Sharing Tools
55.6% ... Social Networks
49.7% ... Thematic Wikis
38.7% ... Reference Management Software
30.9% ... Learning Management Software
Peters, I., & Mazarakis, A. (2019). Social-Media-Nutzung in der Wissenschaft. https://100jahre.zbw.eu/wp-
content/uploads/2019/05/Dossier_10_SM_nutzen.pdf

Some Findings: Peters, I., & Mazarakis (Germany)
Wikipedia (mostly passively used)
● reading articles (83.7%)
● research/ referencing (81.5%)
● review references (43.14%)
● majority of respondents use Wikipedia several times a week (31%)

Networks
Uses:
● Managing existing contacts (67.9%)
● Making and observing new contacts (60.8%)
● Showing visibility (57.2%)
● Informing about new publications / topics (50.5%)
Providers:
● ResearchGate (60.5%)
● XING (56.6%)
● LinkedIn (48%)

Research
Research sources for researchers are no longer databases alone, but also Social Networks.
Publication
Research results are published in a variety of ways, be it as a question, as a topic
presentation or as an impetus for discussion. Platforms are science-specific Social
Networks.
Exchange
Social media complement the classical contact and communication modes in science.

Some Findings: Nature Research (Globally)
Some numbers ...
● Over 95% of respondents said they used some form of Social Media or Social Networks
(SCNs) for professional purposes
● ResearchGate was the platform with the greatest proportion of professional users
(71%), followed by Google Scholar (66%)
● 50% of professional users said they accessed Facebook on a daily basis
75% of them are using it only for private purposes
Stainland. M. (2017) How do researchers use social media and scholarly collaboration networks (SCNs)? : Nature Blogs.
http://blogs.nature.com/ofschemesandmemes/2017/06/15/how-do-researchers-use-social-media-and-scholarly-collaboration-networks-scns

Stainland. M. (2017) How do researchers use Social Media and scholarly collaboration networks (SCNs)? : Nature Blogs.

Motivations
● Over three quarters of respondents stated that they use Social Media and SCNs for
discovering and / or reading scientific content (Nature’s 2014 study: 33%).
● 57% of respondents to the survey used some form of Social Media and /or SCNs to
support with self or research promotion.
Stainland. M. (2017) How do researchers use social media and scholarly collaboration networks (SCNs)? : Nature Blogs.

Social Media - what about us?
1. Twitter 9
2. Facebook 9
3. LinkedIn 7
4. ResearchGate 5
Do you use Social Media to search for information or to distribute your own data and
information?
Just for searching: 8
Both: 4
typical distribution of activities in Social Media
90% of users read content
9% comment/share content
1% write/produce content

Some Media in detail
● Twitter
● Facebook
● LinkedIn
● ResearchGate
● Google Scholar
● ORCID / ImpactStory
● Reddit

Group Phase 2: Your experiences
How do you use Twitter/ Facebook/ LinkedIn/ ResearchGate as a research tool for
literature, people, collaborations?
How do you use Twitter/ Facebook/ LinkedIn/ ResearchGate to disseminate your own results
and raise your profile, as well as for self-marketing?
How do you use Twitter/ Facebook/ LinkedIn/ ResearchGate for networking?
● Building groups of three
● Each group will focus on one of the Social Media mentioned
● Answering the questions in the groups (15 minutes)
● Reporting in plenary incl. demonstration (with one's own profile) and discussion in
plenary (15 minutes each group/ Social Media)

Social Networks in Detail
Motion-
Design
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn ResearchGate

Q1
4.54 billion people are using the internet - how many are using Social Media?
1. 2.169 billion
2. 3.725 billion
3. 4.512 billion

Q1
4.54 billion people are using the internet - how many are using Social Media?
1. 2.169 billion
2. 3.725 billion
3. 4.512 billion
https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts/#section-2

Q2
How many people older than 65 year use Social Media on a daily basis?
1. 9%
2. 31%
3. 65%

Q2
How many people older than 65 use Social Media on a daily basis?
1. 9%
2. 31%
3. 65%
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics

Q3
How many Social Media accounts does an average user have?
1. 7.6
2. 9.1
3. 12.7

Q3
How many Social Media accounts does an average user have?
1. 7.6
2. 9.1
3. 12.7
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-facts/258533/#close

Q4
How many years of our lives do we spend on Social Media on average?

Q4
How many years of our lives do we spend on Social Media on average?
5 year and 3 months ….
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-facts/258533/#close

Sum up - Twitter
● quick access to information
● great to find scientific content formally and informally published
● topic identification via hashtag, e.g. for conferences
● information gathering through questions to followers
● great for engagement with journalists, policymakers, politicians and other
professionals and public interest groups
● lists help to structure content
● extremely useful platform for disseminating information, consulting with individuals
and also getting individuals involved with discussion
● can be searched without being a registered user, https://twitter.com/explore
● by far not all users have a full profile with their real name
● tweets can have a maximum of 280 characters
● useful: advanced search, https://twitter.com/search-advanced
see also: National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement. 2018. What Works - Engaging the public through social
media.
https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication/what_works_engaging_the_public_through_social_media_nov
ember_2018.pdf

Sum up - Facebook
offers personal profiles, pages, groups, internal search
Organizational / institutional accounts
● good for community building
● very suitable for marketing
● great for engagement with general public audiences, for promoting offline engagement
opportunities and getting online engagement through public events (e.g. live
streaming)
● not so useful for stimulating fast two-way interactions (better use Twitter)
Private Accounts
● valuable for discussions in groups and to follow relevant organizations/conferences
media.
ember_2018.pdf

Sum up - LinkedIn
● helps search for potential employers or cooperation partners in business
● most users have a full profile with their real name
Private Accounts
● valuable for discussions in groups and to follow relevant organizations/ conferences
● very suitable for searching relevant contacts
● very well-designed for reputation management
● useful for networking and disseminating information and content
● other users may verify your qualifications with endorsement
Organizational / institutional accounts
● good for building community
● very suitable for marketing
media.
ember_2018.pdf

Sum up - ResearchGate
● very suitable for searching for relevant contacts and collaborations
● job market & hiring
● very well-designed for reputation management
● profiles explicitly designed for scientists:
Bibliometric information
Project lists
CV
Sharing of scientific content
Publishing options
Integrated in institutional authentication (partly)
…
● valuable Q&A sections, topics, labs (= closed groups)
● users rate posted content by upvoting and downvoting - the more upvotes a post gets,
the more prominently it is placed
https://researchgate.net

Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/
● Reddit does not consist of one large community, but of many small ones = subreddits
(similar to a classic internet forum)
● each subreddit is dedicated to a different area of interest
● users rate posted links, images, videos or texts by upvoting and downvoting - the
more upvotes a post gets, the more prominently it is placed in the subreddit.
● extremely well suited to disseminate and discuss findings
● extremely well suited to discuss questions with others
● great to provide scientific expertise and discuss science issues with others
● very predominantly not science-related
media.
ember_2018.pdf

Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com
Profile
● research focus, institution, contact
● publication list incl. citations and metrics (h-index)
curation: manual, semi-automatic, automatic
● option to follow other scientists
● alert functionality
● purely science related

ORCID iD
Online Researcher and Contributor ID
https://orcid.org/
● not really Social Media
● service on people disambiguation
● maps publications and their impact on individuals
● can (and should be used)
… when submitting applications for research funding
… when publishing papers or data
… to connect (author) profiles to scientific databases
-> Web of Science
… to connect (author) profiles to Social Media
-> Google Scholar
-> impact story, https://profiles.impactstory.org/

Social Media and features
● reputation management
● dissemination of findings
● finding new studies/ findings
● finding experts / decorate yourself with contacts
● getting input from topic groups
● dialogue/ problem-solving
● organizational marketing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16VM9cbLthGPMDtrBhK0b-e9obgb75W52Jv55vI3W8nM/edit?usp=sharing

Some hints
● Be cautious when using private profiles for professional and scientific purposes.
● Do not accept friend requests from clients in your private network.
● Do not share private information in the professional context (network, group, …).
● When searching for scientific content on Social Media use (if possible) DOIs.
● When posting/ mentioning own content use its DOI because impact services (impact story,
altmetrics.com, PLUM) are parsing DOIs.
● Connect all your professional profiles (in Social Media and beyond) with your ORCID iD.
● Think carefully about the purpose for which you want to use Social Media and which services
you want to use for which purpose.
● Focus: Choose services where you can find your communities.
● Don’t just broadcast - build networks by communicating with other users.
● Set up specific opportunities for people to engage, e.g. set questions to create
conversations.
● Be aware of copyright infringements when sharing publications as a fulltext
> check the Sherpa Romeo database,https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/ or dedicated information of
the publisher affected

Some tools
● Search engine for profiles in Social Media
https://www.social-searcher.com/google-social-search/
● Meta search engine for Social Media (incl. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit)
https://www.social-searcher.com/social-buzz/
● Integrated monitoring of Social Media accounts
https://www.netvibes.com/en
● Twitter Analytics (KPI for profiles, e.g. outreach)
https://tweetreach.com/
● Botometer (tries to identify bots, also useful to check whether one's own profile could be considered
as bot
https://botometer.osome.iu.edu/
● Links to Social Media Tools
https://start.me/p/ZGAzN7/verification-toolset

Thanks a lot for
your attention!
Dr. Ulrich Herb
u.herb@scidecode.com
https://scidecode.com/en
Twitter:
@scinoptica
@scidecode
LinkedIn:
https://de.linkedin.com/in/ulrichherb

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