In this talk (60th ICREA Colloquium, 11/03/2014) I summarised the benefits which can be gained from use of social media (specially blogs and Twitter) to support research activities. According to some authors there is evidence that using social media can be really beneficial to increase the impact of research papers, get new information, engage with fellow researchers and meet new collaborators, among others utilities. So I provided examples of blogs, Twitter and other resources as tools for scientific communication, as well as discussed their implications for digital scholarship.

1. Increase your research
competitiveness using
Web 2.0 tools
60th ICREA Colloquium
11 March 2014
Xavier Lasauca i Cisa
@xavierlasauca
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21314760@N00/1583345201

2. Overview
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebehnken/5007703932/sizes/l/

3. From the kingdom of the Apes…
…to the supremacy of the homo digitalis
http://estrellaenelsol.blogspot.com.es/2010_08_01_archive.html

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

5. Alternative metrics (Altmetrics)
http://article-level-metrics.plos.org/

6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/5791228117/sizes/l/in/photostream
#Create
#Comunicate
#Connect
Share!

7. #Create
Science Blogging as a New Form of Engaging
with Science http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcclaveria

9. 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
Example motives of science bloggers

10. http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/13910

11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nauright

12. http://rrresearch.fieldofscience.com/

13. 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/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.

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

15. http://presence-thoughts.blogspot.com.es/

16. http://bg.upf.edu/blog/

17. Jester
Luboš Motl
Matt Strassler
Matti Pitkanen
Peter Woit
Philip Gibbs
T. Dorigo
ZapperZ

18. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/02/24/five-minutes-patrick-dunleavy-chris-gilson/

19. Sure-fire tips for academic bloggers working to improve their
craft
1) Remember the Web is a network, not a single-track railway line – and not everyone
uses the web in the same way. So once you have a blog post, do
everything you can to get the key content out to diverse
readerships who want to see it. Post your links to Twitter (several
times, at different times of the day) and Facebook. Let people subscribe by RSS or
email.
2) Talk to your readers. Encourage people to comment (but only
post their comments after moderation) and respond to comments and to
Tweets. Talk to people on Twitter and Facebook when they discuss
your work. And be reciprocal, open-minded and fair in sharing your content with others
and linking to their work – improving the public understanding of social science is a
huge collective good for all social scientists. We can all flourish together in the new
paradigm for academic work.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boulevard_der_Stars_2012_Blogger.jpg

20. http://feedly.com

21. #Comunicate
The uses of Twitter for Science

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

23. http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE/article/view/4625/4830
• Connect
• Develop ideas
• Disseminate

24. The role of Twitter in the life
cycle of a scientific publication
• Start: to generate new ideas
• Manuscript: pre-review of works in
progress.
• Published: communicate research to
a broad audience that can amplify the
scientific and social impact of
publications.
• Major funding boards are starting
to value the social media impact of the
research values.theconversation.com (nicolasjon)

25. https://twitter.com/nlbigas
A researcher’s Twitter profile

26. Timeline (TL)
A
B
C
D

27. An influencer

28. http://blogs.plos.org/scied/2013/08/19/twitter-for-sci-ed-
part-1-teaching-in-140-characters-or-less/

29. Reason #1: Twitter has very direct, and very relevant
implications for those in Public Health

30. Reason #2: It’s a great way to get information you otherwise
wouldn’t
Reason #3: At conferences, Twitter is invaluable
for stimulating discussion and finding out what is
happening in other sessions
Reason #4: For lecturers, Twitter can contribute to
discussions and deepen understanding
Reason #5: The way we translate information is changing

31. http://www.flickr.com/photos/shovellingson/6800803601/
The Importance of Being Hashtag

32. Example of hashtag (#genomics)

33. Using hashtags in conferences (#EPSHEP)

34. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiftIdjCeWSXdDRLRzNsVktUUGJpRWJhdUlWLS1Genc#gid=0
Twitter chats

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

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

37. 7 top twitter tips for academics

39. #Connect
• Linkedin
• Google +
• Facebook
• Researchgate
• Academia.edu
General networks Specific networks

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

41. Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net/xavierlasauca

42. 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

43. ICREA
researcher
Blog
Twitter
Slideshare
Personal brand
+Visibility
+Impact
+Reach
+Online
reputation
+Prestige
+Influence
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waywuwei/4611542919/sizes/o/

44. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers
To deepen…
http://tinyurl.com/VitaeInn-HSMR

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

46. http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/23things/

47. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tetegil/4545900167/
Government 2.0

48. Secretariat for Universities and
Research in social media
Secretariat for Universities and Research
(Ministry of Economy and Knowledge)
@coneixementcat
Directorate General for Research
@recercat
Directorate General for Universities
@universitatscat

49. @recercat on Twitter & Facebook
https://twitter.com/recercat
https://www.facebook.com/recercat

50. Portada recercat
RECERCAT
http://www.gencat.cat/economia/ur/serveis/recercat/index.html

51. Social media: Why?
• To disseminate our publications (RECERCAT)
• To publish announcements of scholarships and research
grants
• To disseminate news/updates on the Secretariat
institutional website
• For press releases
• For live broadcast of events
• To disseminate events, awards, scholarships, publications and
other information related to the agents of Catalan science
and technology system

52. Conclusions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfakheri/8873167/sizes/l

54. .

55. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kugelfisch/3558561251/sizes/l/
Xavier Lasauca i Cisa
Directorate General for Research
Ministry of Economy and Knowledge
Generalitat de Catalunya
www.xavierlasauca.cat
@xavierlasauca