Library & Information Skills (Natural Sciences):3. Social Media

Vashti Zarach, Academic Support Librarian. CC BY-NC 3.0.

1. Social media for academia2. Twitter 3. Academia, ResearchGate, Mendeley, Google Scholar Citations, LinkedIn4. Tracking downloads & citations5. Digital footprints6. Online collaborations7. Contact details

Contents

Social media can be incredibly useful for academic purposes.

Creating online profiles for relevant social media sites enables you to:

•Follow and interact with academics, professionals and organizations relevant to your research topic

•Keep up to date with the latest posts, uploads and research for your research topic

•Promote and share your own research

1. Social media for academia

Twitter is a social network where people and organizations post updates in short 140 character tweets: https://twitter.com/

Twitter can enable you to follow a wide variety of relevant sources, and get snapshot views of their posts in your newsfeeds (you won’t be able to keep up with all tweets).

You can also type your research keywords into the Twitter search box, and see the “Top” (most popular) tweets and accounts, or click on “Live” to see the most recent tweets.

This can keep your research very up to date as you may see links to blogs and articles as soon as they are posted.

2. Twitter

You may prefer not to have a Twitter profile. You can still search Twitter for news and research without a Twitter profile. Go to: https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=en and type in keywords.

Even if you have a Twitter profile, you may still find this search page useful, as it is an “advanced” search, and has additional features, e.g. you can set words to search for, remove words, specify dates, etc.

Without a Twitter profile, you can find and click on research, news and links; but you can’t follow and connect with people.

Searching Twitter

Current awareness: “Geneticist Eric Topol…starts his workday browsing through his Twitter feed…“It actually may be the most valuable time [I spend] in terms of learning things that are going on in the world of science and medicine,””(http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2014/09/top-50-science-stars-twitter)

Conferences: Follow tweets from conferences by finding the hashtag on Twitter, e.g. #osc2017 (Open Science Conference, March 2017)

Sharing research: e.g. 2015 British Library competition summarising PhD research in a tweet: http://www.bl.uk/share-my-thesis/

Search Twitter without a Twitter profile. Go to: https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=en and type in keywords.

Academic uses of Twitter: examples

Biology (not updated): https://twitter.com/BUBiology Environmental Science: https://twitter.com/BUEnvironmentFisheries: https://twitter.com/Fisheriesbangor Food Security: https://twitter.com/BangorFoodSecur Forestry: https://twitter.com/BUForestryForestry Society: https://twitter.com/BFSA_forestry Geography: https://twitter.com/BUGeography People & Planet: https://twitter.com/Bangor_PnP Ocean Sciences: https://twitter.com/sos_bangor_uni Students for Treborth: https://twitter.com/STAG_BangorTreborth Botanic Garden: https://twitter.com/TreborthBG WISE Network: https://twitter.com/WISEnetworknews

Bangor Natural Sciences on Twitter

Academia, ResearchGate and Mendeley are useful sites for following relevant academics or topics, and accessing research. If producing research, you may upload it (subject to copyright, and in addition to the university repository: http://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/).

https://www.academia.edu/. See: https://bangor.academia.edu/.

https://www.researchgate.net/ See: https://www.researchgate.net/institution/Bangor_University

Mendeley: https://www.mendeley.com/ (Primarily a reference manager, but enables following and collaborating with researchers).

3. Academia, ResearchGate, Mendeley

Google Scholar Citations: https://scholar.google.com/citations If you are publishing research, you may wish to create a profile on Google Scholar and make it publically viewable. Your profile will appear in the results when people search for your name, and you can track citations of your articles.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/LinkedIn is like an interactive online CV site, which enables you to post up details of your educational and employment experience, connect with relevant contacts and follow postings via a newsfeed.

Google Scholar Citations, LinkedIn

I post handouts on e-databases and so forth on Academia, in order to enable the students I teach to find these handouts swiftly via a Google search, rather than have to click through many links.

I had not realised at the time of posting the handouts that Academia tracks the number of downloads. The statistics have enabled me to see that many students do access the handouts after training sessions, and to see which guides are most downloaded.

It is incredibly useful to be able to track the response to your posts, handouts or research, whether that be downloads, citations, online mentions, or other interactions.

4. Tracking downloads & citations

Your publically visible online activity leaves a digital footprint, so consider carefully what kind of impression you wish to create online.

Things to consider include:Maintaining a professional toneRespecting the privacy of othersManaging & monitoring your online presenceBeing aware that future employers may view posts

“…tweeting in haste may leave you to repent at leisure.” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10740954)

5. Digital Footprints

Despite the need to carefully manage your online identity, the benefits can be vast: information and connections gathered via social networks can enhance your research and visibility.

“In 2011, Emmanuel Nnaemeka Nnadi needed help to sequence some drug-resistant fungal pathogens. A PhD student studying microbiology in Nigeria, he did not have the expertise and equipment he needed. So he turned to ResearchGate… and fired off a few e-mails. When he got a reply from Italian geneticist Orazio Romeo, an inter national collaboration was born. Over the past three years, the two scientists have worked together on fungal infections in Africa…“It has been a fruitful relationship,” says Nnadi — and they have never even met.” (http://www.nature.com/news/online-collaboration-scientists-and-the-social-network-1.15711).

6. Online Collaborations

Library Contact Details:Tel: 01248 382981Email: library@bangor.ac.uk Or use live chat via library website or catalogue, Mon-Fri, 9-4

Social Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bangorunilib/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BangorUniLib Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bangorunilib/

Photos by V. Zarach.

7. Contact Details