Trends in Scholarly Use of Online Social Media

Abstract

As online social media sites rapidly become more mainstream, numerous studies have been conducted on how the public is using these technologies; however, there is still scant research into how scholars are using these technologies. To address this gap, we are conducting a comprehensive study to find out if, how, and why scholars are using social media for knowledge and information dissemination (KID). In this research, we address six main questions: 1) Why are scholars starting to rely on these new media? 2) What is the geographical reach of these media? 3) What is the actual adoption rate for these media among scholars? 4) What is the perceived, actual and potential utility of these media in the context of KID? 5) Do these media help to improve KID? 6) Do these media help or hinder the ability of researchers to publish or present their work in more traditional media such as journals and conferences? This position paper is a starting point in our research. This preliminary literature review will list some of the social media tools that have been adopted by scholars and how scholar are currently using them in their work.

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