Every scientist should use Twitter: Part 1 - Why?
How Twitter impacts scientific production Citations and publications But how does Twitter really impact scientific production, ie. citations, and publications? The Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), after a three-year study of the journal's articles' relative success in both Twitter and academic worlds, found that highly tweeted articles were 11 times more likely to be highly cited than less-tweeted articles. Many scientists do not put efforts in disseminating their results after the publication of a paper. But a tweet - when well written - can lead to a tremendous impact. In the study, 75% of highly tweeted articles were also highly cited. Tweets can thus predict and lead to highly cited articles within the first 3 days of the article publication; that is how important it is to share research and articles on Twitter. Altmetric Sharing content on Twitter is a must, but so is following up on one’s own statistics with data such as altmetrics. Altmetrics emerged a few years ago, are now well spread in academic institutions and are used to evaluate the impact of the individuals. For example, the data science company Altmetric tracks a range of sources to capture and collate conversations about scholarly content happening online every day, helping scientists to monitor and report on the attention surrounding their work. The Altmetric Attention Score indicates the amount and reach of the attention an article has received. Why are Altmetrics so important in relation to Twitter, you might ask? A study published in PeerJ-Life & Environment found that the Attention Score of science communication, including Twitter activity, was positively correlated with citation rates, demonstrating that maximizing citations does not require publishing in the highest-impact journals. Know that your activity on Twitter - along with other social media - will be taken into account to evaluate your profile on Altmetrics. Increasing research exposure can thus be made through social media engagement along with traditional scholar activity. How Twitter impacts scientific dissemination Twitter can also be used to reach broader audiences. Indeed, in a recent study, Facets highlighted the fact that tweeting academic scientists had the potential to disseminate scientific information widely to non-scientific audiences (civil society, general public...). By identifying events and their participants, you can increase and diversify your network and outreach. For example, the EU-funded project PneumoNP used Twitter to communicate during events about their project advancements to a larger audience interested in the subject of antibiotic rejection. Following «World Days» in your own field of interest is another means to identifying and approaching people in that particular field, with a more «general public» kind of approach. Bluenod is also very useful to produce maps of interactions and networks, especially during events or conferences. This tool can also help identify the type of audience you usually communicate to.