From academic blog to networked scholarly community:

Lessons from the LSE Impact Blog

Strand Symposium on Public Engagement - King’s College London - 26 June 2015

Sierra WilliamsManaging Editor of the LSE Impact Blog

Outline

• Impact of Social Sciences project background and community of academic blogging

• Social media and visibility of academic work - how online engagement fits with wider academic career incentives

• What are some of the challenges and constraints we’ve come across?

Journal Article Blog article

Length 8,000 words 800-1000 words

Timing Yearly Weekly

Multimedia Black and white charts? Colour, audio, video

Audience Tens or hundreds Potentially thousands

Availability Paywall Open Access

Blog article vs journal article

Individual vs multi-author blogs

Individual Blog Multi-Author blogs (PPG-run blogs)

Posts 1-3 per week 2-3 per day

Social Media Fit around work schedule 1 tweet every hour with Managing Editors responsible for active

engagement

Multimedia Whatever the author can manage 1 team member for 8 blogs dedicated to podcasts, videos, special features

Audience/

Public

Engagement

Those interested in your work Those interested in clearly communicated research findings,

evidence-based discourse, general topics

University support n/a We provide training and editorial support for academics internal and

external to LSE.

Control Full control of content, platform, direction

LSE server and CMS limitations; Academic editorial board structure.

Discipline % not cited

Medicine 12

Natural sciences 27

Social sciences 32

Humanities 82

Source: Dahlia Remler (2014). “Are 90% of academic papers really never cited?” LSE Impact Blog

Capturing and communicating new process of research impact

Source: Xianwen Wang (2014). “From Attention to Citation: What are altmetrics and how do they work?” LSE Impact Blog

What are the challenging issues around public engagement and academic blogging – for individual researchers and departments?

Challenge 1: TIME!

• The focus on using social media (and impact) can feel like a new responsibility in addition to all the other things academics do

• It takes new skills that have to be learnt and a new way of engaging with stakeholders and practitioners that are unfamiliar (and unsupported?)

• Social media can seem to feed into an academic culture of “time-shortage and hurry sickness”

Challenge 2: Commitment

• Blogs only get read if you write them and then also disseminate them to a target audience

• Blog audiences like regular content – once you start it takes time and resources to keep going

• You might have to justify the time you spend on social media to colleagues and senior staff

Challenge 3: One size doesn’t fit all

• Blogging is only useful for some audiences, so is not appropriate for all research projects

• Not all academics have to be on social media, it shouldn’t be compulsory

• Early career researchers may need to focus their effort on writing and publishing

• Social media can be a scary place, especially for women. More institutional support necessary.

Challenge 4: Comments and Copyright

• You can receive instant feedback on your work, and it is all public. Can be very nerve-wracking for individual academics and universities

• There are uncertainties about how open you should be about work in progress, does this infringe copyright of previous or future articles?

• Publishers still hold much of the power and prestige in the information sharing landscape – how can libraries and university presses look to challenge the status quo?

Source: Gartner Hype Cycle by Jeremy Kemp (CC BY-SA 3.0) mentioned in Kathleen Fitzpatrick (2015) “Scholarly communities face crucial social challenges in maintaining digital networks that can sustain participation. LSE Impact Blog.

For more details:

The Impact of the Social Sciences (Sage, 2014)

Maximising the Impacts of your Research: A handbook for social

scientists (2011)

Using Twitter in University Research, Teaching and Impact Activities:

A guide for academics and researchers (2011)Email: impactofsocialsciences@lse.

ac.uk Twitter: @lseimpactblog

Facebook: Impact of Social Sciences