Workshop slides for PGR students at De Montfort University on 12 February 2015. See: http://www.richard-hall.org/2015/02/11/notes-on-social-media-for-researchers/

1. Social Media for Researchers
Professor Richard
Hall
@hallymk1
rhall1@dmu.ac.uk

2. hopes for the session
1. Linking social media and research
management to researcher development
2. Demonstrating the potential of social media
for academic practice/scholarship in public
3. Demonstrating the potential of social media
for co-operative, academic
practice/scholarship
4. Some considerations

3. Which social media tools do you use?
What do you use them to achieve in your academic
work?
What would you like to cover in the session or in a
follow-up discussion?
What are the ramifications of your work being social?

4. I currently use Facebook on a personal basis and
LinkedIn on a professional basis.
I don't really use social media (except occassional rants
on facebook and networking on linked in [sic.]).
Mainly, I use social media (Facebook & Tumblr), but not
for academic purposes.
I use social media for personal use but intend to use
Twitter mainly for my research to keep up to date with
what other people in my field are doing and to promote
my research.
[academic identity; boundaries]

5. I have been hearing about how I should be using twitter
from a research/professional basis so am trying to
increase my use of twitter now.
I am connecting with other researchers, keeping an eye
on hashtags such as #phdchat for useful information
and contact with fellow phd students.
I would really like to learn what platforms I should be
using and how to use them best to engage for success
in my phd. Am I doing the right things?
[are there right things? Balance time/investment/capital]

6. I'm very interested in how social media can contribute to
participatory action research with young people and how it
can be used to effectively disseminate research findings &
recommendations in ways that can have an impact.
achieve some marketing of work/ideas and networking.
I would be interested to understand how others successfully
use social media for academic purposes. By successful, I
mean more than just adding people into friends lists - for
example: did they obtain research projects? did they enter
networks that otherwise could not have taken part?
[collective work]

7. Any other business?

8. The Vitae Researcher
Development Framework
A1: Knowledge Base
B3: Professional and career
development
C1: Professional conduct
D2: Communication and
dissemination
Available: http://bit.ly/1zn9o3m

9. Useful tools
Access/chance/trust: Twitter
Verification/trust: Subject blogs
Verification/trust: Open libraries
Resources/groups: Mendeley
Resources/groups: ResearchGate
Searching: Tagging, folksonomies
Collecting: Evernote; Tumblr

10. Useful tools
Networking/reputation: Twitter
Networking/reputation: LinkedIn
CPD: Subject blogs
Publication: Open libraries
Publication: Academia.edu
CPD/publication: Mendeley
CPD/publication: ResearchGate
Reputation: ImpactStory

11. Ethics, legal requirements,
IPR and copyright,
co-authorship
•Collaborative work
•Privacy settings
•Intellectual Property
•Permissions, use, sharing and re-use
[e.g. Creative Commons]
•Open data [Manchester; .gov;
data visualisation]
•DMU-specific rights

12. Useful tools:
•File sharing: Dropbox,
Google Drive, Zend
•Conferencing Skype
•Social presentation: Prezi,
SlideShare, Storify
•Multimedia: YouTube
Plus those in B3, above.

13. Some cases
• Tressie McMillan Cottom: own site as pivot; structure;
public scholarship; most read; events; personal academic
formation
• Lucy Atkins: PhD notes/verbs; standard open tech; links
to Twitter; process of PhD
• Transition through PhD: #phdchat; Guardian HE Network;
therapeutic networks; support networks
• Writing:
seven reasons why academic blogging is valuable;
the DMU Commons

14. • Collective work/co-operation: Joss Winn’s site [blog,
academic writing, scholars, presentations, contact]
• Alignment with research nodes/centres/projects:
DMU Centre for Pedagogic Research;
Digital Building Heritage
• Participation with user communities:
DMU Square Mile on the Academic Commons;
Galaxy Zoo; RunCoCo
• Public Scholarship: public intellectuals;
Doug Belshaw’s Never Ending Thesis;
The Social Science Centre

15. resources

16. • DMU Commons: http://our.dmu.ac.uk/
• DMU/CELT Guidelines when using Social Media
Technologies for Teaching http://bit.ly/1iDiIc2
• See also DMU Email, Internet and Social Media
Policy: briefing; policy
• DMU Library Copyright pages:
http://library.dmu.ac.uk/Support/Copyright/

17. Jisc’s Social Media for Beginners.
Really simple overviews: http://bit.ly/1jX8S2t
RIN: Social Media: A Guide for Researchers
Andy Miah’s A to Z of Social Media for
Academia
CIBER: Social media and research workflow

18. to consider
• Intensity of reading/research versus intensity of
networking [time]
• How risk averse do you *need* to be?
• How open do you *need* to be?
• What is the balance between soft and hard
publishing?
• How do you use your networks to challenge your
own orthodoxy?

19. to consider
• What permissions do you need to use stuff?
• What permissions do you want to give your stuff?
• Think about your identity across disparate
platforms
• Think about being true, necessary and kind
• Think about your e-safety [personal
relationships, the institution/funder, the State]

20. Slides 8-12 in this presentation are amended from “Social
Media for Researchers” by Tanya Williamson and Louise
Tripp at Lancaster University Library.
Social Media for Researchers by Professor Richard Hall is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.