VITAE INNOVATE Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisors Digital technologies for research dialogues Shailey Minocha Marian Petre Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisors Digital technologies for research dialogues __________________________________________________________ Shailey Minocha and Marian Petre Centre for Research in Computing The Open University, UK Contact: [email protected] This quote from an article by G. Small in Nature, vol. 479, page 141 summarises how new technologies are changing the way in which the research dialogues are being conducted: “The real value of social media for scientists (aside from teaching us to communicate concisely) may be that we are forced to think about how to share ideas with a broader audience, one that ultimately pays for most of our research: taxpayers. Public conversations about our research make scientists accountable for delivering something of value to those taxpayers. In an era of budget cutting, early-career scientists will have to be effective ambassadors for the profession. This might manifest in conversations with family members or with strangers sitting next to us on a plane, or it might mean posting videos on YouTube or blogging about our ongoing research. The days of scientists communicating only with each other, in the languages of our individual disciplines, and relying on science journalists to translate for the public, are rapidly coming to an end.” Funded by Vitae Innovate Material from this document may be freely reproduced, in any medium, by UK higher education institutions only, strictly for their own non-commercial training and development purposes, subject to acknowledgement of copyright. Materials may be adapted 2 for your own non-commercial use provided that the original source and copyright is acknowledged. If material is required for use outside the UK higher education sector, and/or for commercial use, please contact The Open University (OU) at +44(0)8453006090. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence by the OU. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 7 2 About the project and the findings ............................................................................................. 13 3 Use of social media tools in research dialogues: results from our survey ........................... 25 4 Personae of researchers using social media tools................................................................... 28 5 Personae of supervisors using social media tools................................................................... 35 6 Social media strategy for research dialogues ........................................................................... 41 7 Tips for social networking for research dialogues ................................................................... 46 8 Digital professionalism in research dialogues .......................................................................... 51 9 A checklist on social media etiquette for research dialogues ................................................. 55 10 Social media and intellectual property rights ............................................................................ 58 11 Ethical issues in social media research ..................................................................................... 61 12 Cloud computing and impact on research data storage .......................................................... 63 13 Social media tools and the Vitae Researcher Development Framework ................................ 67 14 Social media in research dialogues: implications for supervisors and institutions ............ 73 15 Guidance notes for a selection of social media tools .............................................................. 77 16 Strengths and weaknesses of tools and the level of interactivity ......................................... 115 17 Using Apps on a mobile phone and on an iPad to support research ................................... 120 18 Digital literacy and digital scholarship ..................................................................................... 124 19 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 129 20 Dissemination activities related to this handbook .................................................................. 138 Funded by Vitae Innovate Material from this document may be freely reproduced, in any medium, by UK higher education institutions only, strictly for their own non-commercial training and development purposes, subject to acknowledgement of copyright. Materials may be adapted 3 for your own non-commercial use provided that the original source and copyright is acknowledged. If material is required for use outside the UK higher education sector, and/or for commercial use, please contact The Open University (OU) at +44(0)8453006090. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence by the OU. Boost your career with social media “…that if you are passionate about a topic and argue your perspective in a compelling manner, you can begin to generate a following…If people find your opinions and perspective interesting, they will do a lot of the work for you. By design, social media is a conversation. When you post information, people like, comment on, or forward your thoughts. This means that not only can you put ideas out there but you can learn a lot as well.” Boost your career with social media: tips for the uninitiated, http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/12/boost-your-career-with-social.html [accessed 16 August 2012] Funded by Vitae Innovate Material from this document may be freely reproduced, in any medium, by UK higher education institutions only, strictly for their own non-commercial training and development purposes, subject to acknowledgement of copyright. Materials may be adapted 4 for your own non-commercial use provided that the original source and copyright is acknowledged. If material is required for use outside the UK higher education sector, and/or for commercial use, please contact The Open University (OU) at +44(0)8453006090. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence by the OU. Acknowledgements This project was funded by Vitae under the Vitae Innovate scheme. We gratefully acknowledge funding by Vitae and the tremendous support, encouragement and guidance which we received from the Vitae programme manager, Heather Pateman. Rachel Blanc, Fiona Denney, Emma Carpenter, Kay Dorrelli, Vivien Hodges, John Igoe, Rachel Kerr, Ellen Pearce, Jonathan Roberts and Victoria Wilby, colleagues in Vitae, offered support and help on many occasions. This project would not have been possible without the support of our colleagues at The Open University, UK. We offer many sincere thanks and gratitude to all listed here: Leonor Barroca, Alan Bassindale, Debbie Briggs, David Clover, Sam Dick, Nicola Dowson, Maja Dunn, Dorothy Faulkner, Christopher Hardy, Brigid Heywood, Darrell Ince, Henryk Krajinski, Robin Laney, Jef Lay, Stephanie Lay, Danielle Lilly, Mary McMahon, Catherine McNulty, Jane Picton, Pippa Rawlinson, Dave Roberts, Hugh Robinson, Monica Stainton, Robert Saunders, Helen Sharp, Liezel Tipper, Rhodri Thomas, Minh Tran, Catherine Tuckwood and Suzanne Wilkins. This report is dedicated to the participants whom we surveyed in 2011-2012 and who were very generous with their time and attention to us. It is only with their insights and stories of social media use that we have been able to develop this handbook. Funded by Vitae Innovate Material from this document may be freely reproduced, in any medium, by UK higher education institutions only, strictly for their own non-commercial training and development purposes, subject to acknowledgement of copyright. Materials may be adapted 5 for your own non-commercial use provided that the original source and copyright is acknowledged. If material is required for use outside the UK higher education sector, and/or for commercial use, please contact The Open University (OU) at +44(0)8453006090. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence by the OU. Know the basics of putting your professional self online “Social media is not just for socializing. When handled correctly, you can use it to enhance your personal brand, establish your expertise, or demonstrate your digital fluency. Commit to using social media for professional reasons and be proactive about managing your activity and image. Consider what potential employers or colleagues will see - you don't want them to discover only pictures of you and your dog, or worse. Make sure at a minimum you have a LinkedIn account with a completed profile. Try tweeting or blogging about your area of expertise, thereby creating content that others can forward, retweet, or repost. This can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field.” Harvard Business Review Management Tip, 9 March 2012, http://hbr.org/tip/2012/03/09/know-the-basics-of-putting-your-professional- self-online [accessed 16 August 2012] Funded by Vitae Innovate Material from this document may be freely reproduced, in any medium, by UK higher education institutions only, strictly for their own non-commercial training and development purposes, subject to