The role of social media in the research cycle

Abstract

Different types of social media are being adopted by an increasing number of members within the scientific community, with researchers, publishers, and readers playing important roles in the scientific communication process. Recently, the ability to harness the online presence of articles has given rise to alternative web-based metrics as an indicator of social impact and a measure of community presence to supplement conventional bibliometric methods. This paper summarises the current uses of social media in science, and includes specially conducted interviews with Jon Tennant, a power user of social media and Euan Adie, founder of Altmetric.