The last few years have been characterised by increasing online communication and the emergence of social media, made possible by Web 2.0. In society as well as in research, social media is used for knowledge produc- tion and networking. One example of this is Mendeley, a social reference management tool. With answers from users all over the world, this study investigates the use of Mendeley, if the respondents use other social media and if all of this affects scientific communication. The aim is also to study what the respondents think about the future of scientific communication and if this can be related to current tendencies. The theoretic framework for this study is based on Leah Lievrouws research on the Cycle of Scientific Communication and the relationship between the ”Little Science 2.0”-scenario and the ”Big Science Retrench- ment”-scenario. A qualitative web based survey was conducted (41 answers) and complemented with an interview with a professor in environmental sciences. The main purpose with the interview was to study how Mendeley can be used in collaborations. The results show that Mendeley is used by researchers to store and organize references, read and annotate pdf:s, cite, share articles in groups, search for new references and to present their research and make new ac- quaintances. The answers show that one effect that Mendeley and other social media has on scientific communi- cation is facilitating cooperation across traditional divides. At the same time, some respondents have not seen an effect on their scientific communication yet. Methods to measure impact in social media are requested, which would complement standard citation analysis. Mendeley’s related research function is found valuable in theory, but is in need of significant improvements. The respondents think that the future will be characterized by an increase in openness and sharing, but a tendency to keep scientific results copyrighted and locked behind pay- walls is also present. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information science.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-179884 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Lundin, Kristina |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 562 |
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