Understanding the Twitter Usage of Humanities and Social Sciences Academic Journals

TL;DR

This study examines the Twitter activity of humanities and social sciences journals, revealing limited presence, predominant sharing of general web content, and minimal cross-journal interaction, with some outreach to the public.

Contribution

It provides a novel analysis of HSS journal Twitter usage using webometric and social network analysis methods, highlighting communication patterns and outreach efforts.

Findings

Limited Twitter presence of HSS journals across disciplines.

Predominant sharing of news portals and magazines.

Minimal inter-journal communication beyond citation indices.

Abstract

Scholarly communication has the scope to transcend the limitations of the physical world through social media extended coverage and shortened information paths. Accordingly, publishers have created profiles for their journals in Twitter to promote their publications and to initiate discussions with public. This paper investigates the Twitter presence of humanities and social sciences (HSS) journal titles obtained from mainstream citation indices, by analysing the interaction and communication patterns. This study utilizes webometric data collection, descriptive analysis, and social network analysis. Findings indicate that the presence of HSS journals in Twitter across disciplines is not yet substantial. Sharing of general websites appears to be the key activity performed by HSS journals in Twitter. Among them, web content from news portals and magazines are highly disseminated. Sharing of research articles and retweeting was not majorly observed. Inter-journal communication is apparent within the same citation index, but it is very minimal with journals from the other index. However, there seems to be an effort to broaden communication beyond the research community, reaching out to connect with the public.