Social media and academic research

Yes, a special report about web 2.0 tools within academic research!

It would seem, that due to the “publish or perish” rule, that a significant amount of professors at the university are more driven within their allocated research hours versus their teaching hours. This is not a judgement, rather, for change management purposes it is important to be aware of the drivers and motivating factors amongst your target group. Can we tap into the drive to conduct research, to pull users over the “social media divide” and introduce new tools/methods of sharing knowledge and networking? A tug is necessary in some cases because learning to use new tools, or new methodologies with old tools, requires an initial extra investment on the side of the user.

Are social media tools relevant, usefull, effective for academic research? Hence my enthusiasm about this special report in The Broker, Social Academia.

The first article by Janelle Ward: The impact of web 2.0 on research practices starts with pointing out three major obstacles to the adoption of web 2.0 tools in academic research (my elation subsidied somewhat).

1. "First, the formal system of peer review to guarantee the quality of research is at odds with the informal and much more open ways of communicating via online social networks.
2. The second obstacle is the ‘publish or perish’ rule – researchers must publish in peer-reviewed subscription journals in order to further their academic careers. This does not fit well with philosophy behind social networking that all knowledge should be freely available.
3. Finally, the ambition of all researchers to publish their findings before anyone else, and to secure potentially profitable intellectual property rights, discourages them from sharing work in progress on platforms that are open to all."

I read a premise in these obstacles which I must question, namely that web 2.0 tools are by definition tools which are open for editing and reading for all. Web 2.0 tools or social media tools can be extremely effective amongst a specific group of people. Doesn’t all research build on former research and on the input and inspiration, ground work, provided by others? How many effective researchers truelly function in an ivory tower? Or are there specific characteristics to social scientists (my target group) that make them more probable to work in groups than others?

A subsequent article, also by Janelle Ward: Rewriting research questions whether the traditional manner of academic publishing (peer review by an anonymous group of experts and written according to specific criteria) will be shaken up by the use of social networking tools, in particular wiki’s and blogs. Lots of valuable information about the use of blogs and wiki’s (collaborative writing) amongst academia. Some great examples to exhibit, as well a valuable statistics.

A quote from the article I would like to highlight here, comes from Torill Mortensen, of Volda College, Norway:

"one of the responsibilities of a publicly paid academic is to participate in the public debate. Yes, there should be ways to register blogging in a way that would give us “points” when counting publications, and I am certain this would propel Norwegian academics into a blogging frenzy. No, I wouldn’t turn down the money if I were paid for this. But yes, I am willing to do it, because it’s part of what I am supposed to do."