Academia.eduAn academic Social MediaKaren SturgillIn partial fulfillment for SAHE 7980, Valdosta State University

Hi. My name is Karen Sturgill, and this is my presentation on Social Media. My social medial network is Academia.edu.1

Social Media

Social media is the collective of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration (Whatis.com, 2014, Definition: Social media, para. 1)

Whatis.com (2014) defines social media as the collective of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. (Definition: Social media, para. 1)

Some of the most popular social media sites include fast past interactions and posts. Such sites as Facebook and Twitter come to mind as examples of this kind of social media network. But not all sites need to be as fast paced. There can still be thousands or millions of uses who interact at a much more relaxed pace. Academia.edu is one such site.

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Academia.edu

Academia.edu is a place where academics can share their research papers, research interests and research ideas. (Academia.edu, 2014).

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Academia.edu

This social media site may not have the visual bells and whistles that other sites might have, but it does have the academic bells and whistles of research.

Since the goal of the company is to promote the sharing of information and research, I can understand why this site might have a more somber feel than other sites.

Academia.edu reports that over 10.5 million researchers, faculty, students, and others interested in academic research currently have an account with the site. The site has global appeal and over 15.7 million (Academia.edu, 2014, About academia.edu, para. 2) different people from around the world visit the site each month. The site also reports to have nearly three million papers have been uploaded and are available on the site. Members of the academic.edu community have identified approximately 1.2 million research topics.

The site tracks visits to the users page and papers. This kind of analytics helps researchers understand the reach of their work.

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Academia.edu

Users can link to other social medial profiles to see if friends from those sites might also be on Academia.edu. You never know who might be using the site.5

Academia.edu

When I allowed the program to look through my Facebook friends, I was surprised to find that a cousin of mine is also an Academic.com member. She is a faculty member at an institution of higher learning in Charleston, SC.6

Academia.edu

Like other social media sites, Academia.edu allows users to send personal messages to other users.7

Academia.edu

Most, if not all, of the social media sites I have been to have allowed uses to post. Posting is a way to express yourself to others. In Academia.edu the messages are posted to a general message board. This is a means to expand research interests. I posted a topic about my possible dissertation topic, but not surprisingly, I have not received any responses to my post. My planned dissertation topic is Change Fatigue in Higher Education, although the title might be different. The concept of change fatigue is not widely written about, and it is because the amount of literature is so limited that I am not surprised by the lack of response.8

Academia.edu

Like other social media sites, the user can share photos and other information about himself or herself. The user can even upload their Curriculum Vitae - CV. And most importantly, users can upload their research articles or papers to the site.

It should be noted that within the last year there has been some controversy over the articles that appear on the site. Many users upload pdf versions of previously published papers, and depending on the publisher, and the publishing agreement restrictions if there were any some publishers feel that posting the papers here takes revenue out of their pocket. To help resolve this issue, Academia.edu will take down any papers upon written request. Elsevier was one such publisher that recently requested a large number of papers to be removed. But other publishers understand the value of research sharing. Authors can avoid this dilemma at the time the publishing contract is drawn by ensuring they retain the rights to share the paper as they see fit.

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Academia.edu

As previously mentioned, the site has an Analytics page for every user. This analytics allows the use to see how many viewers and followers are interested in their research.

As you can see, I have had only one view my cousin. I suspect that if I choose to upload papers in the future, that my Analytics might be different.10

Academia.edu

The program allows the user to specify research interests at set up. This can be amended at a later date. Once the users page is established, the system will guide the user to other researchers who might have the same research interest. If the other person has uploaded papers or articles, the user will be able to see the titles on the researchers page, and even click them if theyd like.

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Academia.edu

Users are able to read the articles on-line and/or download them as pdf. This article is one that relates to my dissertation topic that I had not previously found using any of the other search means I have attempted.12

Academia.edu

Users can also choose to bookmark the article as one that is of interest to their research area.13

Academia.edu

Like other social media networks, the user is able to follow people of their choosing. Academia.edu allowed me to see Kim McMillans actions. She is the author of the article that matches my research interest. By knowing who she follows or what papers she post, I may be able to find addition researchers with interests similar to my own.14

Academia.edu

So, if you are looking for a social network of academics and you want to add a potential article repertoire of resource, or you have an article or articles that you would like to share, then go to Academia.edu and become a member.

I hope this presentation has been interesting to you, and I hope that you were able to view it and hear it without a glitch on this Google+ posting.15

ReferenceAcademia.edu (2104). About Academia.edu. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/aboutWhatis.com (2014). Definition: Social media. Retrieved from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media

These are my references16