Abstract
The communication of scientific research in all areas, including the geosciences, is being transformed as the web and social media gain increasing influence. Universities and researchers are beginning to take advantage of new opportunities afforded by these tools in order to explore how best to increase their research outreach. A number of significant challenges need to be addressed, however, including issues of quality assurance, editorial control, peer perception and how to measure online impact (or literally what do web statistics mean?). These challenges are explored in this chapter with reference to the United Nations University’s experience with the development of an online environmental magazine entitled “Our World 2.0” (http://ourworld.unu.edu).
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Notes
- 1.
Data as available for March 31, 2011, and accessed at http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
- 2.
To access the Digital Life Survey data, see http://discoverdigitallife.com/the-digital-landscape/
- 3.
Facebook was launched in February 2004 and now has over 750 million members. See https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline
- 4.
For more statistics, see http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/02/04/facebook-youtube-our-collective-time-sinks-stats/
- 5.
See George Monbiot, The Lairds of Learning, accessible at http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/29/the-lairds-of-learning/
- 6.
See “Google Scholar—a new data source for citation analysis”, A Harzing, http://www.harzing.com/pop_gs.htm
- 7.
The UN University has a formal agreement with the Guardian online whereby it is possible, if both parties so wish, to exchange up to two articles each month.
References
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Acknowledgements
The Our World 2.0 web magazine is a collaborative effort that brings together expertise from across the UN University. Permission to pursue this initiative was given by the UN University Rector, Konrad Osterwalder, in 2008. The team involved many dedicated individuals, beyond the editorial team who wrote this chapter, including Sean Wood, David Jimenez, Daniel Powell, Luis Patron, Citt Williams, Kaori Brand, Megumi Nishikura, Oleg Butuzov, Jason Hall, Stephan Schmidt, Rie Hayafune and Taeko Okada. We would also like to thank the 396 authors, both within and outside of the UN University, who have contributed articles to Our World 2.0.
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Barrett, B.F.D., Notaras, M., Smith, C. (2014). Communicating Scientific Research Through the Web and Social Media: Experience of the United Nations University with the Our World 2.0 Web Magazine. In: Tong, V. (eds) Geoscience Research and Outreach. Innovations in Science Education and Technology, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6943-4_7
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