Social media in science

Why should we care?

Some statistics….

Boosting online presence will boost the impact of your work/publications, and make you more attractive as an employee

Lots of high-end publications

Good use of social media can maximise impact

IMPACT

Stay active in social media…More followers=more free advertising

Example…

Example…

Another example…

It’s all about altmetrics

Citations

“social media”

Presentations, talks and posters

Publications, abstracts,

grants

RECOGNITION!!IMPACT!!

Altmetrics: Finding Meaningful Needles in the Data HaystackSerials Review, 40, 3, 141DOI:10.1080/00987913.2014.947839

Different platforms…

• Unique researcher ID• QR code• Link to other websites• Information on papers, grants,

education, employment and projects• Endorsed by publishers, and

professional bodies• Push from research institutions for

staff (and students) to have an ORCID account

• Free to access, and can be linked to other websites; twitter, linkedin, researchgate etc…

Keep track of it all:• Tracks all mentions

Citations Blogs Tweets Book chapters Presentations Videos Images

• Recognised by publishing bodies

• Elsevier includes some Altemtrics data

Paper info Extra information (presentations, posters, data-sets etc)

Author information

• Started in April 2014• Provides a platform for people to

add things to articles• Works with publishers including

Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, RSC, WILEY and ASN

• Provides access and links to other websites

• FREE!!!!

Studies that made data available in a public repository received 9% more citations than similar studies for which the data was not made available. Publicly available data was significantly (p=0.006) associated with a 69% increase in citations, independently of journal impact factor, date of publication, and author country of origin using linear regression.

In a pilot version of Kudos during 2013, researchers using the Kudos sharing tools saw an average increase in downloads of their publications of 19% compared to a control group.

• Tracks publications and citations

• Free• Widely accepted

and used in scientific community

• Cant access until you have published

• Upload presentations • Can be connected to

linkedin and Kudos• Free• Good way of spreading

knowledge, and increasing impact • Upload images and

posters etc…• Can be connected to

linkedin and other websites

• Generates more impact of work

• Free

A few more….

Why use social media?

Pro’s Con’sMaximise research potential Lots of different platforms

Free advertising Can incur costs

Get your name out there Takes time

Widen potential audience Need to get your name out for it to work effectively

Online track record of career progression Jargon and arbitrary scales

Online CV Can be hard to search for the right person

Employers and head-hunters will google you Make sure content is appropriate

Share conference talks, posters, grants, papers etc… Confidentially issues

Back to this….

Worth investing the time?