Hello!

Social media has been a revolutionising tool over the last decade, impacting several domains and industries in our society. Likewise, such a disrupting infrastructure has been severely criticised for its impact on users, especially younger generations, who typically spend a considerable time on these platforms. Nonetheless, I believe a responsible and purposeful use of such apps can still provide meaningful value. Specifically, in this post, I would like to focus on the benefits I find in using Twitter for academic purposes.

1. Access to the latest research work

2. Foster connections with fellow researchers

3. Promote a sense of community

Access to the latest research work

A common trait of several social media networks is the immediate coverage they provide to the events taking place worldwide and enabling users to share their experiences and opinions at scale. When considering the academic field, users can leverage this characteristic to stay up to date on the latest work in their fields of interest. With intentional curation of our feed, we can follow the accounts of relevant pre-print servers and journals that regularly share their latest publications. As I come across exciting papers, I usually send a link or identifier to my Notion dashboard, where I keep my reading list and update it, depending on the work’s relevance for my projects.

Similarly, Twitter also makes it easier to come across new tools that may be useful for our work or be a source of inspiration for a given problem we are trying to solve. Furthermore, the comment sections of such posts are also a great source of resources as users often share their experiences and alternative tools. Finally, I believe that the influence of open-access science has encouraged scientists to make their analysis available in a public repository as they publish a paper, which ultimately helps colleagues reproduce and expand the work. Besides, many of these tools include good documentation pages, which facilitate setting up and quickly experimenting with them in our applications.

Foster connections with fellow researchers

More broadly, the open-space nature of Twitter facilitates interacting with other researchers, from friendly colleagues we met at scientific conferences to scientists whose work we admire. Following the previous point, many scientists also share their recent articles, leveraging the exposure that Twitter provides and creating a space for the mutual celebration of these achievements (especially for younger scientists) and discussion of the implications of new results.

Furthermore, from a learning perspective, I have noticed several scientists advertising their latest work as a Twitter thread where they summarise the work and the most relevant conclusions. First, this encourages the author to develop solid marketing and communication skills to effectively showcase their (long, intricate) work in the limited space available. Besides, it also helps the readers quickly grasp the paper’s content and decide if it is relevant for them, given the ever-increasing rate of published papers and associated challenges to staying on top of the work in our field. Moreover, authors also benefit by observing how others market their articles and incorporate such communication techniques in their future manuscripts.

At last, scientists also leverage Twitter’s reach to promote scientific conferences and events. Since the start of the pandemic, many events have started offering a hybrid option which facilitates anyone to join from their current location, often for free. I have benefited from several talks and workshops I came across on Twitter, and I am continuously amazed by how easy it is to access such high-quality content so conveniently. On this note, I would emphasise the value of Twitter groups and communities, which unite researchers with a passion for a given topic and promote mutual support in a friendly environment.

Promote a sense of community

Additionally, I believe that Twitter plays a crucial role in creating a public space for relevant discussions. Several accounts focus on promoting dialogue about fundamental topics in academia, like supervision of (doctoral) students, discrimination, and grants. As a doctoral student, it can be eye-opening to read about the experiences shared by fellow PhD students, focusing on work progress, challenges, or successes. Besides, Twitter also provides top-notch academia-themed meme content, which helps maintain a humorous atmosphere among colleagues who relate to the situations portrayed.

I also appreciate following discussions about transversal topics like peer-reviewing of articles and authorship matters, often promoted by journals or with the active participation of journal editors, which enable all sides to better understand the challenges faced by others. For example, eLife recently announced a new model for peer reviews that attempts to make the process more transparent and could be seen as controversial in the light of current peer-reviewing standards where reviewers’ comments dictate whether an article is accepted or rejected for publication. Such announcement generates multiple discussions on Twitter, which I find extremely valuable to learn about the advantages and pitfalls of the current reviewing process and how this new method can alleviate some of these shortcomings while potentially featuring other limitations. Regardless, the sheer number of perspectives shared helps to understand these complicated topics, which can be very influential when the time to submit manuscripts arrives, and we face in first-person some of the challenges highlighted in these discussions.

A doctoral journey can be pretty daunting and solitary at times; therefore, witnessing how others have faced similar circumstances can tremendously impact helping to overcome such difficult periods. Similarly, by learning about other lab experiences, we can identify valuable points that we can implement and hopefully promote positive changes in our environment.

Conclusion

Depending on the standpoint, social media can be seen as a valuable or destructive tool for society. However, I believe that it comes down to the users intentionally curating their feeds to match their goals and needs and maintaining a responsible use to minimise the negative influence of these platforms. I think there can be benefits from maintaining a healthy use of social media, focusing on academia, which is worth leveraging for personal and professional development.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on using social media for (academic) work purposes!

Have a great day!