The world of scientific research has been rapidly changing
in the way it disseminates scientific information, with decreased reliance on
print journals and a dramatic increase in the usage of online resources. In addition to supplying articles online,
publishers have turned to social media, defined as websites and applications
amenable for interaction and communication amongst users, to actively entice the
scientific audience. Various science
journals as well as organizations have been assessed for how they use social
media and their effectiveness.
The Science and PLoS series of journals illustrate this recent
foray into social media, with the latter being arguably more creative at using
it. A perusal of the Science website reveals links to
Facebook and Twitter, where the use of these social media sites focuses on
news, articles, and job listings. On
Facebook, the majority of space is dedicated to posts with links to new issues
of Science that are out or various
interesting articles. These updates
should entice more people to read or be aware of the articles, but one can say
that the information on Facebook is no more than what one would have gotten by
scanning the Science website say,
once a week, and a better job could have been done on Facebook for it to
complement the main website. On Twitter,
there are also links to articles, many of which are the same as the content on
Facebook. Additionally, there are quick
news updates of more general science as well as a few posts of other
information related to the magazine or publisher, such as a mention of proposal
submission for an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
symposium, job listings related to the magazine, and contests for publication
of an essay in the magazine.
Upon analysis, it is clear that PLoS (Public Library of
Science), the publisher of the PLoS journals,
utilizes social media mainly to increase its visibility and self-promote. Like the Science
journals, it also uses Facebook and Twitter. Its posts on Facebook and Twitter overlap in
content, namely quick mentions of new blog stories, podcasts, or journal
articles. It is clever that PLoS uses
Facebook and Twitter to promote its other social media outlets, namely its
blogs and podcasts, because people who have already embraced the Facebook and
Twitter trends are probably the most likely to check out additional social
media content. There are also re-tweets
of news stories from magazines such as Wired
that cite PLoS articles, another way
to self-promote. Additionally, there are
a number of tweets touching on open access, such as how people could help the
Federal Research Public Access Act, links to blogs not connected to PLoS that
advocate for open access, etc. As
everything PLoS publishes is open-access, it is not a surprise to see the
passionate support for the sharing of research on social media sites, which
have been built on user interaction and communication. PLoS also uses LinkedIn. An interesting resource on this site is a
helpful subgroup called "Meet PLoS," which is for those who want to
connect with PLoS at conferences.
Journals such as the Science
and PLoS series have made
admirable effort in trying to connect with the audience by social media, but
are anything that they are doing working?
Discussing this topic amongst colleagues at Washington University
reveals the consensus that if students are not already on social media, then
they are generally unaware of journals' use of Facebook and Twitter. If they do know of it, they still would not
choose to keep up with journals through these social media outlets because it
would be too much of a hassle to set up an account and learn how to use the
websites just for updates from journals, most of them about new issues being
released. Perhaps new graduate students
would be curious enough to sign up for updates, but older students who have
been in a field long enough to know which handful of journals are relevant to
their work and know when new issues of them are released simply do not need
these updates. For those casually
interested in science but not in the field, the Facebook and Twitter updates
would be helpful to keep up with the headlines and read snippets of research. What would be much more helpful for students
actually in the field would be updates about conferences and job opportunities,
which are not the focus of what the journals are promoting on their social
media sites. If
journals want to be a resource and a reason for students to follow them, then this
is an avenue they should pursue.
Besides journals, there are organizations that could fill
this hole and provide information about conferences or jobs. Two of them were assessed for their use of
social media to disseminate this information: FASEB and AAI. FASEB (Federation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology) is a coalition of biomedical societies and researchers
that advocates for science progress and education. Their role in sponsoring scientific
conferences is directly relevant for graduate students. FASEB utilizes Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn. Its Facebook and Twitter
updates complement each other with links to its job center as well as job posts
by other companies (Procter and Gamble for instance) in additional to
interesting polls and news snippets. On
LinkedIn, one can send InMail to employees with job titles students are
interested in for job inquiries and career questions, all in all making FASEB's
use of social media very helpful for students seeking jobs. AAI (American Association of Immunologists)
is an association of scientists in the immunology field that publishes the Journal of Immunology as well as
organizes scientific meetings, all activities that are directly relevant to
students hoping to publish well and attend conferences to learn and network. Its use of Facebook has benefits for students
who pay attention; for instance there are notices about travel grants, links to
apply for the AAI Public Policy Fellows Program, and mentions of speakers
attending the AAI conference.
Use of social media allows scientists all over the world to obtain
information from other scientists and connect instantaneously. While browsing Facebook looking at friends'
profiles, we can at the same time see links to interesting science articles and
discuss them with people from a different country, or notice local job postings
and follow up on them. Getting updates
from Twitter can even be instructive, allowing us to not only get updates from friends
we know, but to also keep up with our favorite science blogs written by people
we have never met. MIDSCI is contributing
towards this social media revolution, actively promoting networking and
connectivity in science. For instance,
MIDSCI uses Facebook to post stories from The New York Times or NPR to
facilitate comments and discussions from scientists worldwide. It offers people the chance to test new
products from vendors supplying free trial kits to connect curious customers
with companies manufacturing revolutionary products. It sees the importance of doing all this in
order to ultimately make it easier for science to progress; we are no longer
limited to seeking help or discussing science with labs down the hall or across
campus but rather, global resources are at our fingertips.
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