Science 2.0 Conference 2014: Talk Professor David Nicholas
Channel: ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
Date: 2014-04-16

Science 2.0 Conference 2014, 26 to 27 March, Hamburg, Germany
http://www.science20-conference.de

Talk by Professor David Nicholas, CIBER Research Ltd., United Kingdom
Title: Trustworthiness and the role of social media in scholarly communications
Abstract: The international research project upon which this paper is based sought to examine how researchers determine authority and trustworthiness in the sources they use, cite, and disseminate in. The paper provides an examination of the behaviours and attitudes of academic researchers as producers and consumers of scholarly information resources in the digital era. In particular how they deal with the trust and authority consequences of the digital transition, especially in regard to the widespread adoption of social media. Data are derived from focus groups and critical incident interviews undertaken in both the USA and UK, and from a survey that obtained responses from more than 3600 researchers from around the world. Generally speaking the study told us what we already know that social media currently plays but a bit part in scholarly using, citing and disseminating activities, but there are hotspots of activity and things might be set to change. Policy mandates are nudging more researchers to use social media more. The paper will look to the future on the back of these results.