The Benefits of Participation in the Social Web of Science

With the flourishing environment of platforms for sharing data, establishing an online profile and engaging in scientific discourse through alternative modes of publishing and participation, there are numerous potential benefits. However, while many scientists invest significant amounts of time in sharing their activities and opinions with friends and family the majority do not make use of the new opportunities to participate in the developing social web of science, despite the potential impact and influence on future careers. We now have many new ways to contribute to science outside of the classical publishing model. These include the ability to annotate and curate data, to “publish” in new ways on blogs and micropublishing sites, and many of these activities can be as part of a growing crowdsourcing network. Our efforts in this area are already being indexed and exposed on the internet via our publications, presentations and data and increasingly we are being quantified. This presentation will provide an overview of the various types of networking and collaborative sites available to scientists and ways to expose their scientific activities online. Many of these can ultimately contribute to the developing metrics of a scientist as identified in the new world of alternative metrics. Participation offers a great opportunity to develop a scientific profile within the community and may ultimately be very beneficial, especially to scientists early in their career.