Relative Trends in Scientific Terms on Twitter

Rela%ve Trends in Scien%ﬁc 
Terms on Twi4er  
Victoria Uren, Aba‐Sah Dadzie 
 The OAK Group, Dept. of Computer Science, The University of Sheﬃeld

Introduc%on 
•  scien%fic research tradi%onally disseminated via journals, books, 
scien%fic conferences 

•  new form of discourse – online social media  
–  suitable forum for dissemina%ng scien%fic research? 
–  do scien%sts engage with online social media? 
–  are there sufficient amounts of informa%on on scien%fic topics? 

•  are there suitable metrics for measuring scien%fic impact online? 
–  between scien%sts? 
–  for public engagement? 
•  are these new measures comparable to formal metrics? 

altmetrics11: Tracking scholarly impact on the social Web

Outline 
•  Aims/Introduc%on 
•  Related Work 

•  Experiment 
–  Data 
–  Analysis & Results 

•  Conclusions  
•  Next Steps 

•  Acknowledgements 


Related Work 
•  Garfield, E. (from 1950s) 
–  father of scientometrics  
•  Priem et al. (2010)  
–  Scientometrics 2.0 as a new metric for measuring scholarly impact on social web 
 
•  Lane (2010)  
–  need to improve metrics used to measure scien%fic impact  
•  Michel et al. (2011) 
–  Google nGrams to analyse culture 
–  a.o., recognised fame for scien%sts low… 

•  Cheong et al. (2009)  
–  H1N1 spike (trend) detected on Twi4er during flu pandemic (May 2009) 
•  Rowe et al. (2011) 
–  influence of content and author features on predic%on of ac%ve, long term 
discussions on social web 
•  Kinsella et al. (2011) 
–  using hyperlinked metadata to aid categorisa%on of topics discussed in online 
social media 


Experiment
 
•  exploratory experiment  
–  to determine frequency of occurrence of scien%ﬁc term usage in 
online social media 

•  data set 
–  three sets of (scien%ﬁc) terms selected from UNESCO thesaurus 
–  Google Books NGrams corpus used as a baseline 
–  300 tweets collected in each sample, using Twi4er API, for selected 
terms 
•  frequency/usage analysis 


Outline 

– Data 




UNESCO Thesaurus 1Gram Terms 
 
Topic  Terms  
Physical Sciences   Ioniza%on, Electromagne%sm, Crystallography  
Chemical Sciences   Phosphorus, Alkalinity, Microchemistry  
Earth Sciences   Permafrost, Lithosphere, Glaciology 

•  selec%on criteria 
–  minimisa%on of noise due to polysemy 
–  avoidance of scien%ﬁc terms with other common/colloquial usage 
–  terms unique to a par%cular topic 
–  words with a single stem 
–  1Grams only 


Baseline Dataset – Google 1Grams
 
•  obtained from Google Books NGrams corpus1  

•  total NGrams by year for three sets of terms 
–  2006 – 116,029  
–  2007 – 126,206  
–  2008 – 111,417 

•  annual varia%on by topic (of total NGrams baseline dataset) 
–  Chemical Sciences  50‐60%  
–  Physical Sciences    30‐40%  
–  Earth Sciences         ~ 10% 

•  [1] h4p://ngrams.googlelabs.com/datasets   


Baseline Dataset – Google 1Grams
 


Twi4er Dataset
 

Sample ID  CollecAon Period   Elapsed Time (h) 
T‐300‐1   Tue   Mar 01 20:56:43 GMT 2011 –   41 
Thu   Mar 03 14:22:18 GMT 2011  
T‐300‐2  Fri     Mar 04 02:35:55 GMT 2011 –  64 
 
Sun   Mar 06 18:38:05 GMT 2011  
T‐300‐3  Mon Mar 07 20:31:11 GMT 2011 –  44 
 
Wed Mar 09 16:21:36 GMT 2011 

•  three samples collected, containing 300 consecu%ve tweets each 
•  ~ 0.003% of total tweets over collec%on period  


Outline 

–  Data 

– Analysis & Results 




Twi4er c.f. Google NGrams
 


 
•  higher varia%on in distribu%on for Twi4er sample 
–  however largely in line with Google NGrams 

•  can Google NGrams serve as a suitable baseline? 
–  need to more closely examine varia%on… 

•  notable peaks in Twi4er sample for three terms 
–  Permafrost (Earth Sciences) 
–  Alkalinity (Chemical Sciences)  
–  Phosphorus (Chemical Sciences)  
•  are these poten%al trends? 


 
•  Permafrost  
–  17% and 15% in Twi4er samples (T‐300‐1 & 2) – c.f. 5% in G‐2006‐2008 
 
–  41 out of 113 tweets (36%) used in scien%fic context  
–  large number of tweets referred to 
•  online game server1  
•  designer case for iPhone 

•  Alkalinity 
–  none found to have scien%fic content  
–  mostly used in pseudo‐scien%fic health advice 
–  peak in T‐300‐2 (31 out of 60 tweets – ~50%)  
•  dominated by  pH measures in swimming pools & fish tanks  
•  influence probably due to collec%on period – weekend – engagement in 
leisure ac%vi%es  

•  [1] h4p://www.everquest2.com/Permafrost 


Example Tweets – Permafrost  
•  advert/chat 
–  @HDNinjacp go to Permafrost Its never full : Fri Mar 04 05:21:02 GMT 2011  
–  @Riﬀy8888 hey Could you Come to my Party birthday Party on CP March 13 Server 
Permafrost Dock 6:00PST : Sun Mar 06 04:37:13 GMT 2011  
–  Party Server Permafrost Dock Please Go It's An Early Birthday Party For me : Thu Mar 03 
01:38:28 GMT 2011  

•  cold 
–  36 inches of permafrost s%ll, I want to stake my bird condo b4 the squirrals knock it 
down again..bas%ds..all of'm : Sat Mar 05 01:51:48 GMT 2011  

•  science 
–  Fire and Ice: Permafrost Melt Spews Combus%ble Methane h4p://%ny.ly/be8q : Fri Mar 
04 16:43:10 GMT 2011  
–  (retweeted) ‐ Experts Monitor Methane Release from Permafrost: Over the past few 
years, methane levels around the world have b... h4p://bit.ly/hvVEJX : Wed Mar 02 
12:27:25 GMT 2011  
–  RT @NetNewsBuzz: Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts 
h4p://%nyurl.com/5w8w2oh #oil #climate #CO2 #fossilfuels : Thu Mar 03 02:57:48 GMT 
2011  


Example Tweets – Alkalinity T‐300‐2 
•  Chemistry Help Needed! pH, concentra%on of carbonate species and 
alkalinity... just got published: h4p://bit.ly/hUCpz7  
–  URL points to the ques%on on “My Chemistry Tutor” – homework? 

•  retweeted 
–  The proper total alkalinity for your pool is 100 ppm. h4p://su.pr/8hrxCE : Fri Mar 
04 19:02:20 GMT 2011  
–  If the Total Alkalinity in your swimming pool is low, your pH will be low. h4p://
su.pr/8hrxCE : Fri Mar 04 20:34:11 GMT 2011  

•  spam/adverts (including retweets) 
–  @Poet_Carl_Wa4s: some foods create acidity or alkalinity ayer they‚Äôre 
metabolized...h4p://ping.fm/GQTvA #KnowledgeIsPower! : Sat Mar 05 02:38:55 
GMT 2011  
–   RT @CourtneyPool: Green juice, oh Liquid Emerald Elixir of Life and Alkalinity! 
Course through my BODY! #juicing : Sun Mar 06 18:34:29 GMT 2011  


Twi4er c.f. Google NGrams: Phosphorus
 
Sample  Total  LegislaAon  NutriAon 
      Other  Industry 
  White 
ID  Sciences 
  Phosphorus
 
T‐300‐1 
  129 
  46 
  16 
  29 
  4  5 
T‐300‐2  119 
  4  26 
  35 
  9  5 
T‐300‐3  171 
  12 
  23 
  37 
  42 
  19 
 

•  Twi4er trends for Phosphorus in sample T‐300‐3  
–  Industry  
•  takeover of a Brazilian company by the Indian ﬁrm United Phosphorus  
–  White Phosphorus 
•  17 retweets of an emo%ve message (rela%on to Middle East wars) 


Twi4er c.f. Google NGrams: Phosphorus
 
•  usage largely with scien%fic content 
–  with rela%onships, a.o., to legal, nutri%onal & economic context 
–  five main categories iden%fied 

•  Legisla%on  
–  limits to use in fer%liser, soap  
•  Nutri%on 
–  phosphorus content  
•  Other Science  
–  peak phosphorus, pollu%on 
–  discovery of arsenic replacing phosphorus in a microbe  
–  tweets about new paper on Redfield ra%o in organisms 
•  Industry  
–  mergers, prices of Phosphorus‐containing goods 
•  White Phosphorus  
–  use in Middle East wars  


Example Tweets – Phosphorus  
•  Legisla%on   
–  RT @YarnPlayCafe: The fact that he wants to repeal the phosphorus ban and kill the Madison 
lakes is, by itself, enough to #killthisbill  ... : Tue Mar 08 02:04:49 GMT 2011  
•  Nutri%on 
–  Big, wet snowflakes driy over the farm. To warm up, I try some Horlicks, a wheat/barley/whey 
drink with lots of calcium & phosphorus. Mmmm. : Tue Mar 01 20:56:43 GMT 2011  
–  Vitamin D acts as an hormone and plays a controlling role in the metabolism of calcium and 
phosphorus : Sun Mar 06 12:12:36 GMT 2011 
•   Other Science  
–   [java] 129 : Greater Phosphorus Efficiency h4p://bit.ly/iehsmK #agriculture : Wed Mar 02 
14:36:21 GMT 2011  
•  Industry  
–  #stocks #bse #nse Buy United Phosphorus ‐ posi%ve move to tap largest La%n American market; 
Edelweiss h4p://dlvr.it/JdSpV : Tue Mar 08 17:22:55 GMT 2011  
–  Enshi : Wugang develops technique to handle high‐phosphorus iron ore ‐ Steel Business Briefing 
(subscri h4p://uxp.in/30538045 : Tue Mar 08 09:33:05 GMT 2011  
•   White Phosphorus  
–  Dear America, your white phosphorus and depleted uranium can not stop the growth of Iraq's 
future. Iraq Will Rise. : Wed Mar 02 07:49:21 GMT 2011  
–  @Remroum so first they steal our land, now they want our "tac%cs" i.e. poetry? i guess the white 
phosphorus just isn't cu•ng it anymore. : Sat Mar 05 03:42:44 GMT 2011  
•  ??? 
–  @p_kojo ‐ Phosphorus Potassium ‐ Pinocchio , I'm so glad we found each other nw we can hav 
lots of fun :) : Sun Mar 06 13:43:10 GMT 2011  


Conclusions – Experiment
 
•  recognised challenges 
–  baseline corpus for online social media difficult to obtain 
•  very small (rela%vely) samples found in Twi4er stream 
•  difficult to obtain representa%ve samples  
  more effec%ve methods required to extract lower frequency terms 
–  difficulty reproducing experiments 
–  reliability, ethical & privacy issues – due to user‐created content 

•  what is a suitable, publicly available baseline corpus? 
–  Google NGrams? 
•  different informa%on collec%on methods from online social media 
–  coverage of topics may see large varia%on between corpora 
–  any others? 
•  Wikipedia/DBpedia? TREC? 


Engagement with the Web? 
•  why do scien%sts not tweet? (or engage much in other social media)? 
–  is the web not seen to enforce sufficient scien%fic rigour? 
–  do scien%sts not view the web as a poten%al audience? 
•  is the web audience a suitable peer reviewer? 

•  why do scien%sts hesitate to disseminate informa%on online? 
–  poten%al for ideas to be stolen? 
–  trust – how to differen%ate between valid science and pseudo‐science, 
spam and adverts? 

•  social media largely driven by personal interest, sen%ment, opinion 
–  may explain low scien%fic content 
–  more colloquial use of what is tradi%onally scien%fic terminology 


Implica%ons for Altmetrics
 
•  however ‐ some level of scien%fic discourse on Twi4er 
–  e.g., Phosphorus iden%fied as a poten%al Twi4er trend 

•  online social media may s%ll have poten%al to serve as an altmetric 
for measuring impact of science 
•  star%ng from scientometrics ‐ which looks at author features, e.g.,  
–  co‐cita%on 
–  affilia%on – rela%onship to reputa%on 
•  corresponding features in online social media 
–  followers  
–  retweets – rela%onship to trust? 


Outline 

–  Data 





Next Steps
 
•  replicate experiments with larger samples over longer period 
–  more detailed analysis 
•  e.g., hashtag analysis; urls within tweets 
•  focus on terms with more trending poten%al, e.g., nanostructures, nanosilver  
•  consider specific tweets 
–  from scien%fic media and journals 
–  posted during scien%fic conferences, congresses 
•  comparison with other independent baseline data sets 

•  compare Twi4er use within different disciplines 
–  influence of interdisciplinary collabora%on on use of online social media? 

•  create new benchmarks data & experiments 
  define alt‐metric for scien%fic term usage in online social media 


Acknowledgements
 
•  Elizabeth Cano for discussions on collec%on and use of data from 
Twi4er streams 

•  V.S. Uren & A.‐S. Dadzie funded by: 
–  European Commission 7th Framework Programme project 
SmartProducts (grant no. 231204) 


References
 
•  Garfield bib ‐ h4p://garfield.library.upenn.edu/pub.html 
•  Ma4hew Rowe, Sofia Angeletou and Harith Alani. (2011) Predic%ng Discussions on 
the Social Seman%c Web, Proc., ESWC (2) 2011: 405‐420 
•  Sheila Kinsella, Mengjiao Wang, John Breslin and Conor Hayes. (2011) Improving 
Categorisa%on in Social Media using Hyperlinks to Structured Data Sources, Proc., 
ESWC (2) 2011:  390–404 

•  others in paper references – see h4p://altmetrics.org/altmetrics11/uren‐v0 


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