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Twitter: a Guide for Research Purposes

A brief guide to using Twitter for researchers.

What is on Twitter?

Twitter's content spans from informal discussions between researchers to the marketing communications of universities research departments, research funders, and other organisations.  It is incomplete because it only reflects the outputs of active users.  Some people/organisations may not use Twitter, some Twitter accounts are inactive.  With that caveat here are some suggestions for the types of content you might look for:

 

Types of evidence  

Description 

Comment and discussion between researchers 

Experts, academics and researchers comment or discuss research topics. 

Researchers talking about their research 

Tweeting about their research and recent publications. 

News on recent research stories 

Twitter is an instant news source extending across all topics from millions of contributors. 

Unpublished and never to be published events 

Events that before Twitter may never have been reported or published are recorded through "live" tweeting from organizers and participants.

Tweet Chats  

Discussions hosted on Twitter.

Signposts to other content on social media 

Twitter is integrated with other social media and the web.  Twitter signposts other social media and content on the web. 

PR, Press Releases, Marketing and Publicity 

Twitter is a key tool for public relations announcing new reports, events and courses.