Social Networking Sites and Researcher’s Success

ABSTRACT

Universities are evaluated more often basing on the citation scores of their employees, schools translate this pressure onto the scholars. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify whether how the use of social networking sites (SNS) may enhance the impact of the research and thus contribute to the academic success in terms of citations; and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of which SNS may have a positive relation to the academic citations. This study drew from the research on social networks, SNS, and higher education; and empirical study results. Researcher’s SNS use is positively correlated with the academic citations rate – the higher the scholar’s presence in academic, professional, relationship, microblogging SNS, the higher scholarly success. This paper explores the association between the researcher’s social media presence on fathomable SNS (ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) and the level of citations – academic success.

KEYWORDS:

• Researcher’s success
• academic citations
• scholarly communication
• social networking sites
• social media