Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.

Because Twitter and other social media are increasingly used for analyses based on altmetrics, this research sought to understand what contexts, affordance use, and social activities influence the tweeting behavior of astrophysicists. Thus, the presented study has been guided by three research quest...

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Main Authors: Kim Holmberg, Timothy D Bowman, Stefanie Haustein, Isabella Peters
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4143334?pdf=render
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author Kim Holmberg
Timothy D Bowman
Stefanie Haustein
Isabella Peters
author_facet Kim Holmberg
Timothy D Bowman
Stefanie Haustein
Isabella Peters
author_sort Kim Holmberg
collection DOAJ
description Because Twitter and other social media are increasingly used for analyses based on altmetrics, this research sought to understand what contexts, affordance use, and social activities influence the tweeting behavior of astrophysicists. Thus, the presented study has been guided by three research questions that consider the influence of astrophysicists' activities (i.e., publishing and tweeting frequency) and of their tweet construction and affordance use (i.e. use of hashtags, language, and emotions) on the conversational connections they have on Twitter. We found that astrophysicists communicate with a variety of user types (e.g. colleagues, science communicators, other researchers, and educators) and that in the ego networks of the astrophysicists clear groups consisting of users with different professional roles can be distinguished. Interestingly, the analysis of noun phrases and hashtags showed that when the astrophysicists address the different groups of very different professional composition they use very similar terminology, but that they do not talk to each other (i.e. mentioning other user names in tweets). The results also showed that in those areas of the ego networks that tweeted more the sentiment of the tweets tended to be closer to neutral, connecting frequent tweeting with information sharing activities rather than conversations or expressing opinions.
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spelling doaj.art-3aaabc3aa5b54ec9ac0c532557cded6f2022-12-21T21:47:15ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0198e10608610.1371/journal.pone.0106086Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.Kim HolmbergTimothy D BowmanStefanie HausteinIsabella PetersBecause Twitter and other social media are increasingly used for analyses based on altmetrics, this research sought to understand what contexts, affordance use, and social activities influence the tweeting behavior of astrophysicists. Thus, the presented study has been guided by three research questions that consider the influence of astrophysicists' activities (i.e., publishing and tweeting frequency) and of their tweet construction and affordance use (i.e. use of hashtags, language, and emotions) on the conversational connections they have on Twitter. We found that astrophysicists communicate with a variety of user types (e.g. colleagues, science communicators, other researchers, and educators) and that in the ego networks of the astrophysicists clear groups consisting of users with different professional roles can be distinguished. Interestingly, the analysis of noun phrases and hashtags showed that when the astrophysicists address the different groups of very different professional composition they use very similar terminology, but that they do not talk to each other (i.e. mentioning other user names in tweets). The results also showed that in those areas of the ego networks that tweeted more the sentiment of the tweets tended to be closer to neutral, connecting frequent tweeting with information sharing activities rather than conversations or expressing opinions.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4143334?pdf=render
spellingShingle Kim Holmberg
Timothy D Bowman
Stefanie Haustein
Isabella Peters
Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.
PLoS ONE
title Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.
title_full Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.
title_fullStr Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.
title_full_unstemmed Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.
title_short Astrophysicists' conversational connections on Twitter.
title_sort astrophysicists conversational connections on twitter
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4143334?pdf=render
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