Master in Translational Medicine-MSc
University of Barcelona, 15 March 2017
Science dissemination 2.0
Social media for researchers
Xavier Lasauca i Cisa
@xavierlasauca
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nanpalmero/5336842036/

• To get new information
• To increase the impact and visibility of research
papers
• To engage with fellow researchers and meet new
collaborators
• To improve a researcher's public profile, build your on
line reputation and thus competitiveness
• As part of the research process
Using social media can be really beneficial:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkhmarketing/8540717756

• I will summarise the benefits which can be gained
from use of social media (specially blogs, Twitter and
other socialnetwork sites) to support research
activities
• I will provide examples of these innovative emerging
resources as tools for scientific communication
https://www.flickr.com/photos/funksoup/403990660
So in this workshop…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/67623309@N07/6286036061
Overview

https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/e/evolution_of_man.asp

http://www.omicrono.com
http://www.eleconomista.es/tecnologia/noticias/4998336/07/13/El-miedo-a-salir-de-casa-sin-el-smartphone-afecta-a-mas-de-la-mitad-de-los-espanoles.html

Source: Mobile Is Eating the World, by Benedict Evans

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/help-darwins-notebook/©REUTERS/TonyGentile

http://www.nature.com/news/online-collaboration-scientists-and-the-social-network-1.15711

Some remarks about altmetrics…
 Track the dissemination of research beyond
academia
 Show the attention, reception, and response to a
published work prior to it being cited
 Can be applied to non-traditional research outputs
like data-sets and blog posts
 Show research impact in real-time — scholars and
journals don’t have to wait for their score to be
released, like in the Journal Citation Reports
Source: Enter Alternative Metrics: Indicators that capture the value of research and richness of
scholarly discourse
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nirak/512878595

“This is me and my digital circumstance”
Miquel Duran

3

LC3S
Listen
Create
Communicate
Connect
Share

Listen

Create
https://www.flickr.com/photos/philandjo/12513695414

http://www.altmetric.com/blog/interactions-here-in-the-blogosphere/

Motive A: Visibility Motive B: Networking Motive C: Information
increase own impact connect with peers be up to date
be found by peers and
other stakeholders
stay in touch with
colleagues
be part of a
conversation
present self/own work
be(come) part of a
community
anticipate trends
Source: (Micro)blogging Science? Notes on Potentials and Constraints of New Forms of Scholarly Communication, by Cornelius
Puschmann

http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/13910

It increases your visibility within academia.
It increases your visibility outside academia.
It increases your visibility more than a static
site.
It’s a great way of making connections.
It makes it easier for people to find your
published work.
It’s a great way to promote events and call
for papers.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymouscollective/4263193267

https://www.flickr.com/photos/miuenski/5887393036/

http://rrresearch.fieldofscience.com/

“The purpose of keeping the blog is to give me a semi-public
place to describe the ongoing process of doing and thinking
about my lab’s research. I hope I’ll use it to describe or
explain (mainly to myself) the scientific issues I'm
thinking about:
- what experimentswe’ve done
- what the resultswere if they worked (or possible
explanations for why they didn’t work)
- what experiments I think we might do or should do
when time and resources permit.”
Rosemarie (‘Rosie’) Redfield

http://rrresearch.fieldofscience.com/2010/12/arsenic-associated-bacteria-nasas.html

http://www.fonamental.cat/

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/12/28/shorter-better-faster-free/
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/01/25/how-to-write-a-blogpost-from-your-journal-article/

Communicate
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30767852@N00/3460078384/

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/04/19/blog-tweeting-papers-worth-it/

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7538-263a

http://cerca.cat/alfabetic/a-la-xarxa/

# (hashtag) used to
categorise tweets.
Keyword.
Text
URL (link)

A
B
C
D

People who have
retweeted or
favorited the tweet
Number of
times this
tweet has been
retweeted

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10411888@N06/5706941473/

A player more with pulmonary embolism? Teletovic,
Varejão, Mickel... Tall players, lot of flights... Are they a risk
group? #basketball #pulmonary

Is there anything as rewarding for a researcher as
responding to a hypothesis in a short time?

Except for the very end
of this process –
submitting the paper to
the journal for peer-
review – none of this
way of working bears
the least bit of
resemblance to how I
was trained to be a
scholar.
Source: Using Social Media to Enhance Your
Research Activities, by Brian Kelly

Twitter has very
direct, and very
relevant implications
for those in Public
Health

It’s a great way to get information you otherwise wouldn’t
At conferences, Twitter is invaluable for stimulating
discussion and finding out what is happening in other
sessions
For lecturers, Twitter can contribute to discussions and
deepen understanding
The way we translate information is changing
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47400163@N05/7846842772

Using Twitter, you can join conversations with other
delegates.
Delegates write short comments and quote speakers and
you can ask for clarification, ask questions, offer opinions
and thoughts
Even if you’re not at the conference, you can still be
involved
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47400163@N05/7846842772

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72211347@N00/327122302#
I am a researcher and I am
on Twitter… Now what?

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/
http://www.lwec.org.uk/sites/default/files/TwitterTips.pdf

Connect
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58754750

Generic networks Specific networks

Share
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohitchhiber/6038689637

Articles and presentations
(Slideshare, issuu)
Social bookmarking (Delicious, Diigo)
Images (flickr, Instagram) and videos
(YouTube)
Bibliographic data management
(Zotero, Mendeley)

Slideshare

Delicious

Google hangouts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4sfQg9IKO8A

http://contemplativemammoth.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/six-ways-to-use-google-hangouts-for-academic-productivity/

Instagram

https://www.flickr.com/photos/xav/3678466365
#Health20

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0900702
Ultimately, the
Internet provides a
powerful
communications
channel, but it is
health care
professionals and
the public who will
best determine how
to use this channel
for surveillance,
prevention, and
control of emerging
diseases.

http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/feature/Social-data-a-new-source-for-disease-surveillance

http://www.yelp.es/barcelona

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=25124281
Based on
observations in this
study and the
increased usage of
social media, we
posit that online
illness reports could
complement
traditional
surveillance systems
by providing near
real-time
information on
foodborne illnesses,
implicated foods
and locations.

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n10/full/nbt1009-888.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/56695083@N00/4464828517/
©PhotobyKatBPhotography
Ready?

Strategy
• Define objectives about online presence
(as individual researcher or research group)
• Explore the tools and choose the most
appropriate
• Develop your network
• Encourage feedback and discussion
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ybot84/7850997682/

The ten commandments

10 Simple Steps to Building a Reputation
as a Researcher, in Your Early Career
1. Register for an ORCID identifier
2. Register for information hubs: LinkedIN, Slideshare, and a domain name of your
own
3. Register for Twitter
4. Write and share a 1-paragraph bio
5. Describe your research program in 2 paragraph
6. Create a CV and share it
7. Share (on Twitter & LinkedIN) news about something you did or published; an
upcoming event in which you will participate; interesting news and publications in
your field
8. Make writing; data; publication; software available as Open Access
9. Set up tracking of your citations, mentions, and topics you are interested in using
Google scholar and Google alert,
10. Find your Klout score, H-index.
Source:MicahAltman,sBlog
http://nepalireporter.com/21956/paul-van-dyk-returns-uae/

Top 10 tips to get started
1. Explore online guides (start with this).
2. Do some “lurking” (look at examples of good practice).
3. Locate pertinent and relevant online sources (e.g. who to follow on
Twitter, interesting bloggers).
4. Start using content aggregation and curation tools (e.g. RSS, Diigo).
5. Identify a few key tools and start with those – know your limits!
6. Develop your network (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter).
7. Join academic social network sites (e.g. ResearchGate, Mendeley).
8. Create your own website
9. Start blogging and twittering about your research (or whatever else
takes your fancy!).
10. Keep your purpose and audience in mind.
Source:IntroductiontoSocialMediaforresearchers,byGillesCouzin
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eeel45jfeg/1-tiesto-22-million/

Researcher
Blog
Twitter
Social media
Science
dissemination
Personal brand
+Online
reputation
+Visibility
+Impact
+Prestige
+Influence
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waywuwei/4611542919/sizes/o/

To deepen…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uncalno/8537569665

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001535?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=

Conclusions
https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/14861104355

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmasphere/3128330968/www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/5301039823

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:YourCountryNeedsYou.jpg

xavierlasauca.cat
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3330087454