Social Media in Research:

Use more than just email to communicate.

Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPSenior Medical LibrarianCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Research Methods

Image courtesy Cameron Neylon presentation

Research Methods using Social Media

Google Docs

Tagging

Tagging

Twitter

Blogs

Wikis

RSS

Social Media

Blogs & Wikis – notebooks Social Bookmarking – sharing sites & refs GoogleDocs – group writing & editing SlideShare – presentation repository Twitter – discussion RSS – news and search feeds

Blogs and Wikis

Communication platform– Article and news discussion– Trends profiling

An online notebook – Link out to external resources, protocols, data

Open or closed– In-house, password protected– Viewable by the public

Science & Research Blogs -News

MicrobiologyByteshttp://www.microbiologybytes.com/blog/

– Latest news about microbiology Peer-To-Peer

http://blogs.nature.com/peer-to-peer/– For peer-reviewers and about peer review

Professor Douglas Kell’s bloghttp://blogs.bbsrc.ac.uk/

– News, thoughts, and facts from Chief Executive of the BBSRC HUGO Matters

http://www.hugo-international.org/blog/– Discusses topics relevant to human genetics and genomics

Science & Research Blogs-News & Extra

Useful Chemistryhttp://usefulchem.blogspot.com/

– Chronicles research involving the synthesis of novel anti-malarial compounds. Closely tied to Useful Chemistry wiki

Cold Spring Harbor Protocolshttp://www.cshblogs.org/cshprotocols/

– Discusses current events in biology with emphasis on lab techniques, protocols are highlighted & discussed in detail

Science & Research Blogs-Lab Notes

Lab notes now more on wikis than blogs– Cameron Neylon

http://biolab.isis.rl.ac.uk/camerons_labblog– Michael Barton

http://www.michaelbarton.me.uk/research/

Science & Research Wikis

UsefulChem wikihttp://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/

– Synthesis of novel anti-malarial compounds, including experiments– Completely open

OBF wikihttp://www.open-bio.org/wiki/Main_Page

– Open Bioinformatics Foundation focused on supporting open source programming in bioinformatics

OpenWetWare http://openwetware.org/wiki/Main_Page

– Promotes sharing of information, know-how and wisdom among researchers & groups working in biology & biological engineering

– Partially open WikiPathways

http://www.wikipathways.org/index.php/WikiPathways– Dedicated to the curation of biological pathways

More Science & Research Wikis

Kochlab notebook wikihttp://bit.ly/3e7mkB

– DNA unzipping data analysis– Semi public, has private wiki

Rosania Research Group wikihttp://1cellpk.wikispaces.com/

– All lab notebooks of Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of Michigan College of Pharmacy

Yeast Genome wikihttp://wiki.yeastgenome.org/index.php/Main_Page

– Everything yeast including protocols, methods, reagents, strains

Social Bookmarking

A.K.A Tagging Similar to browser bookmarks

– On the web, accessible anywhere– Viewable to others– Include descriptors, metadata, etc.

Lots of tagging applications– Delicious– CiteULike– Connotea

Delicious

Early social bookmarking web service Very popular

– 5 million users– 150 million bookmarked URLs

Use any term to index sites Easy to use Easy to syndicate (RSS feed) Does NOT import to Endnote Does not support automatic import of journal

metadata

CiteULike

Intended to organize academic publications– designed specifically for scientists & scholars to share articles &

information Captures article metadata in RIS (EndNote compatible) Identifies how many people have bookmarked a

publication Collects data on potential number of readers not just citer Automatic import for JSTOR, PLoS, PubMed,

SpringerLink, ScienceDirect PDF uploading to repository

Connotea

Created by Nature Publishing Group– Similar to CiteULike but aimed specifically at scientists

Automatic import for BioMedCentral, PLoS, PubMed, Nature.com, Wiley Interscience

Captures article metadata in RIS (EndNote compatible) Can have spam problems Some don’t like the advertising OpenSource Group feature allows tagged sites to be uploaded to all

members of group No PDF uploading

GoogleDocs

Collaborative writing, editing, data sharing Edit in real time Complete History of Changes Editing conflict rare but easy to identify & fix Documents saved & exported as DOC, XLS,

CSV, ODS, ODF, BTF, RTF, HTML Sometimes has problems with images and

citations

SlideShare

Your presentation doesn’t end at the conference– Upload, share, view, download slides, PDF, Docs– Audio, video upload and sharing abilities– Embed slides into website– Private or public

Contact original authors

Twitter

Common misconceptions– Waste of time– Place to spam, advertise– Only the self absorbed

1 in 5 American Internet users tweet Visits grew by 1382% in one year

– More popular than Facebook 228% growth 42% tweets from 35-49 year olds 62% access Twitter from work

– More popular than Facebook 228% growth

Twitter

Method to network on the fly Share breaking news, information, articles Journal or association news, TOCs Create news & topic update feeds

– Need Twitter client Tweetie TweetDeck

Who is Tweeting?

NatureNews 4,197 followers NIH

– NIHforHealth 10,815 followers– NIHforFunding 1,275 followers

CellPressNews 1,196 followers NEJM 1,184 followers

Twitter in Conference Settings

Updates of events, speakers, presentations Logistical information Enhanced discussion

– Questions to presenters from off site– Discussions between attendees & non attendees– Links to presentations, pictures, & videos

Facebook: For Science

Nature Networkhttp://network.nature.com/

– Connect with colleagues Create a profile, describe yourself & your research, list

publications– Discuss science news and issues

Join forums on topics of interest– Science Blogs

Create your own, read others, post comments– Events and other information

Upcoming seminars, conferences, job listings

Information Overload?

Gathering Information

RSS: Online News Feeds

Almost Everything Has a Feed (RSS)

Blogs & wikis –notified of changes or new posts

PubMed, Scopus, WoS, etc. –search updates

Journals –news, TOCs Twitter –follow topics, groups, news

All That Glitters is not Gold

No Time– Already got too much on my plate

Mine– My idea, my data, my hard work– Don’t want to get scooped

Unfamiliarity Publishing and grant restrictions

– Data on Internet may be “already published”

Have It Your Way

Assess your wants and needs– Example: subscribe to Twitter to monitor specific topic news

and information Try one thing at a time

– Don’t try to blog, tweet, and a wiki all at once in the beginning

Let things build off each other– Example: RSS feeds can lead to tagging

Give things some time to find your legs– Email was once a new technology.

Questions?

http://www.slideshare.net/michellekraft/social-media-in-research