{"id":3391,"date":"2019-06-11T15:15:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T18:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/?p=3391"},"modified":"2019-06-11T15:52:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T18:52:31","slug":"web-presence-and-social-media-metrics-from-articles-shared-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/2019\/06\/11\/web-presence-and-social-media-metrics-from-articles-shared-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"Web presence and social media metrics from articles shared on Twitter \u2013 Interview with Stefanie Haustein"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ronaldo Ferreira de Ara\u00fajo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image adapted from the original, by Biodiversity Heritage Library<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For decades, authors\nhave routinely consulted a journal\u2019s impact factor to determine where to submit\na manuscript. With the emergence of altmetrics, now the journal\u2019s impact on\nsocial media and the relationship it establishes with the public also plays a\nrole in influencing some in selecting a journal. In this sense, social media\nmetrics may act as a type of social-media impact factor and assist the\nmanagement of a journal\u2019s web presence on platforms such as Twitter and\nFacebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between July 17 and 20, 2018, the 6th<\/sup>\nBrazilian Meeting of Bibliometrics and Scientometrics (Encontro Brasileiro de Bibliometria e\nCientometria<\/em> \u2013 EBBC) was held in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the Instituto de\nBioqu\u00edmica M\u00e9dica<\/em>, the Faculdade de Administra\u00e7\u00e3o e Ci\u00eancias\nCont\u00e1beis<\/em> and the Sistema de\nBibliotecas e Informa\u00e7\u00e3o da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro<\/em>,\nwith support from Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Oswaldo Cruz<\/em>.\nOne\nof the international speakers was Dr. Stefanie Haustein, from the School of\nInformation Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada, co-director of the ScholCommLab\nand affiliated researcher at the Centre\nInteruniversitaire de Recherche sur la Science et la Technologie <\/em>(CIRST) of the University of Qu\u00e9bec\nat Montreal (UQAM). Following her lecture: “Scholarly Twitter metrics:\nHow, when and what does the Twittersphere tweet about science?”, she gave\nus an interview in which we can address the importance of journal\u2019s web\npresences in the scope of altmetrics studies, with special attention on Twitter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ninterview continues the discussions made in panel 4.2 \u2013 Scientific\/academic\nimpact of journals \u2013 citation based and other indicators<\/strong> of the SciELO 20 Years\nConference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. To what do you attribute the prevalence of\nTwitter in the scientific community regarding the number of tweets on\nscientific articles as compared to other sources like Facebook and blogs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfact that Twitter is exhibiting one of the largest frequency of event counts\nwhen it comes to linking to journal articles has a number of reasons. First of\nall, Twitter is a platform with a large user base: more than 10 million users\nfrom Brazil are active on Twitter. Of course, considering Brazil\u2019s enormous\npopulation size, that\u2019s merely 5% of people. Worldwide, 4.1 million unique\nTwitter accounts have linked to at least one scholarly journal article with a\nDOI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared\nto Twitter, 11% of journal articles are linked to by Facebook posts, 3% by blog\nposts and less than 1% are mentioned in Wikipedia articles, as captured by\nAltmetric. However, one needs to be aware of the discrepancy between data\ncollection and actual amount of Facebook posts: Altmetric only captures public\nposts, those posts Facebook users who share their information privately, that\nis, only visible to their friends, are not considered by Altmetric. Therefore,\nthe majority of altmetric studies underestimate activity on Facebook. Data\ncollection by Altmetric and other providers of scholarly metrics is still\nproblematic and incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. In your speech, when presenting part of\nthe results concerning how and by whom the papers are shared on Twitter, you\npresent data of the Top three most active users (in number of tweets) and in\nmost cases the journal profiles appear among the most active ones. In your\nopinion, what is the importance of scientific journals keeping their online\npresence with social media profiles such as Twitter?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nresults pertaining to users who are most active when it comes to scholarly\njournal articles reveal that we cannot simply talk about societal impact<\/em> when evaluating tweets and other social media\nactivity in the context of scholarly communication. Most highly active accounts\nare either fully or partially automated \u2013 we consider these bot or cyborg\naccounts. If tweets linking to journal articles are sent automatically, the\nquestion is whether we can actually still talk about any type of impact<\/em>: what kind of influence does a\njournal article have when it is sent without human intention? In case of tweets\nabout publications authored by at least one author from a Brazilian\ninstitution, the three most active users by number of tweets where arXiv_trend<\/em>, par_paper<\/em> and psych2evidence<\/em>.\nAll three accounts are now either suspended or have been deleted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journal\nor publisher-run accounts are also quite common on Twitter. They often exhibit\npromotional and marketing activities, where specific content published in the\njournal is promoted. In my opinion, it is up to the journal if they maintain\nsuch an account or not. If they do so, I would sustain from tweeting each and\nevery article but promote a small number of particularly relevant ones, for\nexample, those that discuss a topical issue or several articles discussing the\nsame topic. Of course, from the journal\u2019s perspective, any additional tweet\nlinking to an article is a good tweet, as long as we keep counting tweets\nwithout differentiating by user type of tweet content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The hashtag, a structural element of Twitter for\ncontent description and classification was also presented as an aspect to be\nconsidered in altmetrics studies. What does it offer for altmetrics research\nand how may it contribute to understanding the contexts of sharing papers on\nTwitter?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think hashtags are\na particularly interesting affordance to investigate in the context of\naltmetrics. They usually represent the essence of a tweet \u2013 the message boiled\ndown into one keyword or a meeting hashtag to propagate community at an event.\nIn my opinion, although extremely straightforward to analyze content and\ncontext of tweeting activity, hashtags are completely under-investigated when\nit comes to altmetrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. In your study you introduce a novelty by considering the occurrence of emojis in tweets about scientific articles. In your opinion, what is the role of emojis in this context and how can they be understood in altmetrics studies?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly, I had hoped that the use of emojis was more significant, especially since they are so popular on social media and the amount of information they are able to convey in a short amount of message space. However, less than 2% of tweets captured by Altmetric contained an emoji. The most frequently used emojis were pointing (👇, 👈) and liking (👍, ❤) as well as icons related to reading (📚, 👀). Sports-related emojis were particularly popular in tweets from Twitter users in Brazil and tweets to articles authored by Brazilian researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. At the end of your presentation you make\nconsiderations that using Twitter is not considered as social impact; what\nexactly do you think its use represents within the scope of altmetrics studies?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndefinitely stand firm by the conclusion I made in Rio last year (and many of my\ntalks on altmetrics) that social media activity related to scientific journal\narticles does not represent societal impact. Some tweets linking to scholarly\npapers might signal the general public\u2019s interest in science and scholarly\ncontent, however, as shown above by the dominant role of automated or marketing\naccounts, much of the activity that we currently consider altmetrics does not\nreflect any type of impact. It is thus of outmost importance that altmetric\nresearch and altmetric applications move forward and differentiate various\ntypes of activity and users. More detailed analyses of tweet (and other social\nmedia post) content, including hashtags, emojis and geolocation of users,\nshould be the focus of altmetrics in the future. Another under-investigated\naspect is also the underlying networks of data which is inherently networks:\nfor example, in a recent paper1<\/sup> in collaboration with my ScholCommLab co-director Juan\nPablo Alperin, we investigated the follower networks of Twitter users linking\nto the same paper and found interesting patterns using social network analysis.\nThese underlying structures might help us differentiating between lay users and\nthe scholarly community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. ALPERIN, J.P., GOMEZ, C.J. AND HAUSTEIN, S. Identifying diffusion patterns of research articles on Twitter: A case study of online engagement with open access articles. Public Understanding of Science<\/em> [online]. 2019, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 2-18 [viewed in 11 June 2019]. DOI: 10.1177\/0963662518761733<\/a>. Available from: https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/0963662518761733<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

ALPERIN, J.P., GOMEZ, C.J. AND HAUSTEIN, S. Identifying diffusion patterns of research articles on Twitter: A case study of online engagement with open access articles. Public Understanding of Science<\/em> [online]. 2019, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 2-18 [viewed in 11 June 2019]. DOI: 10.1177\/0963662518761733<\/a>. Available from: https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/0963662518761733<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

External\nlinks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur la Science et la Technologie (CIRST) <https:\/\/www.cirst.uqam.ca\/<\/a>><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ScholCommLab <https:\/\/www.scholcommlab.ca\/<\/a>><\/p>\n\n\n\n

School of Information Studies <https:\/\/arts.uottawa.ca\/sis\/<\/a>><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

About Ronaldo Ferreira de Ara\u00fajo <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ronaldo\nFerreira de Araujo is Professor and Assistant Coordinator of the Graduate\nProgram in Information Science of the Universidade\nFederal de Alagoas<\/em> (PPGCI \/ UFAL), Professor of the Graduate Program in\nManagement and Knowledge Organization of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais<\/em> (PPGGOC \/ UFMG) and Editor of\nthe journal Ci\u00eancia da Informa\u00e7\u00e3o em\nRevista<\/em>. He is the leader of the Laboratory of Web Information Metrics (Lab-iMetrics),\nwhere he develops studies on the cybermetrics and the mediation of web information,\ndigital scientific marketing, and evaluation of academic and social impact of\nresearch results using alternative metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Stephanie Haustein<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

She is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa\u2019s School of Information Studies and co-direct the #ScholCommLab, a research group that analyzes all aspects of scholarly communication in the digital age at Simon Frasier University in Vancouver, Canada. She is also an associate member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST) and an affiliated researcher of the Canada Research Chair on the Transformations of Scholarly Communication, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al and the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST), Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al. Her research focuses on scholarly communication, bibliometrics, altmetrics and open science and analyzes the role of social media in academia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knowing how and by whom articles are shared on social media can help the challenging task of qualifying alternative metrics indicators. In this interview, Stefanie Haustein, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa\u2019s School of Information Studies in Canada and co-director of the ScholCommLab, addresses the role of social networks such as Twitter as a data source for altmetrics. She also looks at the role journals play in the dissemination of their articles on Twitter and investigates how scholarly articles from Brazil and Brazilian Twitter users tweet about scholarly outputs. …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30,29,49,7,67],"class_list":["post-3391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-altmetric","tag-bibliometrics","tag-dissemination-of-information","tag-scholarly-communication","tag-scielo-20-years"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3401,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391\/revisions\/3401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}