Managing Academic Profiles on Scientific Social Networks

This article investigates the way in which communication science researchers use and manage academic social network sites. On this basis, a representative sample of 244 Spanish scholars was selected from the Spanish Association of Communication Researchers, which consists of more than 600 members. This article explores the presence of Spanish communication scholars in two academic networks: ResearchGate and Academia.edu. Furthermore, it examines the way in which researchers are using these platforms of scientific communication, managing their academic profiles, and searching and interacting through these networks. The purpose is to assess the introduction, use, management, popularity, influence, and impact of these social academic networks. An additional aim is to analyze the new metrics generated by the media and digital social networks, studied as systems for disseminating science and managing communication and interaction among scholars.