SCIENCE COMMUNICATION. Articles presented in the Open Accessjournal are more likely to be quoted on Twitter. This according to ongoing research at the University of Turku. The researchers studied around 4 million shares on social media like Facebook and Twitter, and on Mendeley. The latter is a tool for scientific articles and academic collaboration online.
The aim of the research is to describe how scientific work may influence, beyond what can be measured by traditional methods, such as citations. Preliminary results show that the articles published in Open Access journals have a much greater chance to be shared on Twitter than publications that require payment. In terms of citations on Mendeley there is a greater probability to be shared for articles that require payment. It is, according to the study, logical because users of Mendeley’s are researchers while Twitter has a wider audience.
Using social media to measure the impact of research was first discussed five years ago. Then, a group of scientists and experts in social media, wrote a manifesto for “altmetrics”. At a conference in Amsterdam recently Juan Pablo Alperin from Simon Fraser University in Canada noted that: “After five years, we still do not have much of an idea of what we’re measuring.”
Professor Alperin expressed concern that the search for new and more complex ways of assessing research may lead to new metrics are created. These might just be something that replaces the old measurements for citations, he said. Instead, altmetrics should be used to find out whom, alongside scientists, are interested in the research.
Read more in Times Higher Education about how Open Access increases visibility of research
