Collaborative Research: The “Social” Way Jackie Krause, Ph. D. Assistant Faculty, Ashford University

Agenda We will look at how researchers can ◦ Connect –  Find like-minded researchers ◦ Communication –  Once connected, how can facilitate communications ◦ Collaborate –  Share research, store references, etc. Hold on everyone, we only have 15 minutes and I intend to cover a LOT of ground!

What does it mean to research the “social” way? Whether you are researching with the group or as a solo activity, we are talking about using social media Using social media effectively ◦ Not necessarily Facebook, but Facebook like sites ◦ But possibly Twitter! ◦ Possibly blogging There are a number of social media/networking sites dedicated to researchers. Some of these sites include: ◦ Social gathering and networking sites ◦ Social resource sharing and collaboration ◦ Blogs and wikis

Connecting with like-minded researchers Why? ◦ Consider asking for help finding relevant research  Find out what others interested in the same research topics you are reading ◦ Consider taking advantage of “crowd sourcing”  This is a great way to vet ideas and seek opinions ◦ Find sources for data/Find prospective research participants ◦ Establish your Research Identity and Presence!  Let people know who you are and what you do

Connecting with like-minded researchers Where are they, anyway? ◦ Professional organizations – seems like a good place to start, right  SIGs ◦ Research Gate –  A social networking site built for scientists, by scientists  Ask questions/get answers  Find research/researchers  Setup research topics of interest  Post your own research publications  Start a research project for collaboration, data sharing, and feedback  It’s a great place to carry on conversations!

Connecting with like-minded researchers ◦ Emerald Research Connections - ons/index.htm ons/index.htm  Hosted by Emerald Publishing Group  Setup as a platform for finding like-minded researchers and collaborations ◦ BiggerBrains.com -  Hosted by Elsevier  For early career researchers  Full of great resources for the newbie who wants to learn more about research and publishing, networking opportunities. Free Services!

Collaborating with fellow researchers Mendeley ◦ Free, web-based tool which allows researchers to:  Maintain a library of references online (including full-text PDF files)  Use a Dashboard like interface:  Search library of published papers  Join public groups and follow their updates through the Newsfeed  Create private groups for collaborative research projects  Share references among your group  “Friend” other researchers and follow their posts

Collaborating with fellow researchers Mendeley, continued  Use a desktop component for a more robust experience, maintains sync with web tool  Includes a plug-in for Word and Open Office to connect to your online library and create bibliographies ◦ Interact with other researchers!

Collaborating with fellow researchers Other tools that are similar: ◦ Zotero (Works with FireFox) ◦ Cite-U-Like A really nice list can be found at DiRT: ◦ ge/ /Citation%20Management%20To ols ge/ /Citation%20Management%20To ols

Collaborating with fellow researchers EndNote and RefWorks ◦ Both offer reference management and collaborative platforms for sharing and working with research teams ◦ You can create a collaboration space to store research and references ◦ Allow those in your research group to Read/Write references to the library ◦ Share and get references from others in your group Fee-based Services Web-based tools Fee-based Services Web-based tools

Social Media for Academics – New uses for traditional tools Create a “research” Blog!  Crowd-source ideas  Look/Ask for references/research  Discuss your research and publications – review research  Look for research participants/collaborators  It’s about maximizing your research impact! ◦ For information on maximizing your impact:  SEPublicPolicy/Docs/LSE_Impact_Handbook_April_201 1.pdf SEPublicPolicy/Docs/LSE_Impact_Handbook_April_201 1.pdf ◦ Register at  Provides a synopsis of posts made that contain serious research material

Additional Support for Blogging How to write a good research blog post: write-a-good-research-blog-post/ write-a-good-research-blog-post/ Great study on the use of blogging by serious researchers: i%2F %2Fjournal.pone i%2F %2Fjournal.pone

Social Media for Academics – New uses for traditional tools Consider academic use of Twitter ◦ Use Twitter to send people to your blog ◦ It’s amazing how many responses you can get to a 140 ch. tweet! ◦ Encourage conversation Want to know how, check out this resource: s/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/ s/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/

Conclusion There are so many great resources out there, this is just a small taste to get you thinking about how social media might support my research efforts. Please contact me if you want to talk more, have resources to share, or just want to connect! A list of additional resources can be found on my blog at: lcome-to-the-age-of-using-social-media-in- research/ or use the QR Code on each slide lcome-to-the-age-of-using-social-media-in- research/

Contact me Jackie Krause, Ph. D Blog: jackiekrause.wordpress.com Jackie Krause, Ph. D Blog: jackiekrause.wordpress.com