Citizen-Scholars: Social Media and the Changing Nature of Scholarship

Amy L. Chapman and Christine Greenhow
Additional contact information
Amy L. Chapman: Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Christine Greenhow: Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

Publications, 2019, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Research is rarely created for private use; researchers publish their work so that others can read and use it, to advance the collective understanding of a field and impact people’s lives. Yet traditional approaches to scholarship, which emphasize publication in subscription-based rather than open access journals, inhibit not only the dissemination of research but also its usefulness, particularly outside of academia. Across all fields, scholars, educators, and members of the public benefit from scholarship which is easily accessible. Open science and public, social scholarship can break down these barriers to accessibility and utility. In this age which calls for a more informed citizenry, the use of social media to share and promote discussion of research could change not only the nature of scholarly communication but also the nature of scholarship and scholars’ roles. In this conceptual article, we argue that practicing public, social scholarship and increasing the use of social media to promote scholarship are the civic responsibility of citizen-scholars , so that research becomes more widely accessible, shareable, and usable in the public sphere.

Keywords: social media; scholarship; citizen; civic engagement; research; open science; public scholarship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 D83 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/7/1/11/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/7/1/11/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:7:y:2019:i:1:p:11-:d:202592

Access Statistics for this article

Publications is currently edited by Ms. Jennifer Zhang

More articles in Publications from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().