Researchers and social media: twittering for science?

The Internet offers scientists new, diverse communication and networking opportunities, both with regard to internal and external (scientific) communication, the boundaries of which are becoming increasingly blurred online. Science communication is becoming more dynamic and interactive online – the entire scientific work process is becoming more transparent and open.

There are now some empirical studies that empirically investigate the use of (smotive) social media by scientists. However, due to different samples, different methodological approaches and operationalizations, these can hardly be compared with one another.

Overall, it is becoming apparent that scientists mainly use classic social networks such as Facebook and / or Twitter, as well as platforms that are specialized for academic purposes such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu or Mendeley. In particular, young, predominantly male scientists at an early stage in their careers actively post on social networks and try to draw attention to new research results or to report on or directly from conferences and to exchange ideas with other scientists. However, the dialogue potential of social networks is seldom exhausted – unidirectional use for disseminating or receiving certain information, for example through new publications or activities by colleagues, predominates (König, 2019).

Achieve more visibility and citations

The question of whether and, if so, how the activity on social media affects the visibility or even the citation of individual publications and thus the reputation of a scientist remains largely unanswered. Traditional publications in renowned specialist journals or the acquisition of prestigious third-party funding are still decisive for certain career and advancement opportunities, such as placement in the appointment process. Despite everything, successful advertising on social media can of course increase awareness of one’s own scientific work. Since Twitter in Germany in particular is used by many multipliers such as journalists and politicians or by other scientists, this can lead to them finding out about new research work via social networks and thus asking the authors for interviews or their results being taken up by colleagues.

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