A presence on social media, especially Twitter, may help researchers grow their scientific circles and even alert them to new opportunities, Nature's Monya Baker writes.
Twitter, researchers using the platform tell her, can enable people to develop networks, even ones spanning varied disciplines, that may not be as easy to do in the physical world. For instance, Cassidy Sugimoto, an information scientist at Indiana University, tells Baker that an exchange that started on Twitter about a conference led her to be able to access a large dataset she'd heard about from a contact.
"Because we started the conversation on Twitter, it allowed me to move the conversation into the physical world," Sugimoto adds. "It's allowed me to open up new communities for discussions and increase the interdisciplinarity of my research."
Additionally, just keeping up with people and their labs on Twitter labs may present opportunities.
"By following the people you find interesting and may want to work with, you're among the first to know when they have an open position within their labs or institutions," Jacob Jolij, a neuroscientist at the University of Groningen, tells Baker.