NEW MEDIA, SOCIAL SCHOLARSHIP

CAROLYN.HANK@MCGILL.CAAssistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies

SCHOLARS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR BLOGS WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

5TH BLOOMSBURY CONFERENCE ON E-PUBLISHING & E-PUBLICATIONS

JUNE 30, 2011 ▪ LONDON, UK

How do scholars who

blog perceive their blog

in relation to their

cumulative scholarly

record?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How do scholars who

blog perceive their blog

in relation to long-term

stewardship?

Who do they perceive

as responsible as well

as capable for blog preservation?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What blog characteristics impact preservation?

What blogger behaviours impact preservation?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

UNITS & DATA SOURCES

Questionnaires

Interviews

Blog AnalysisBLOGGER

BLOG

Academic Blog

Portal

Purposive Sampling

POPULATION

<http://www.academicblogs.org>

(29%)

125 Single-Blogs | 65 Co-Blogs

History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys

ELIGIBLE BLOGS

ELIGIBLE BLOGGERS

107 Single-Bloggers | 187 Co-Bloggers

QUESTIONNAIRES

Completed sample:

153 respondents

RR 1: QI: 63% | QII: 46% | QI/II: 52%

Outcome rates derived from Internet surveys of specifically named persons

from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR, 2009)

INTERVIEWS

24 semi-structured

phone interviews

72 (47%) of QI & QII respondents expressed interest

BLOG ANALYSIS

Coded 93 blogs

57 to 63 Indicators

(on/off blog)

Authorship Attributes

Blog Elements & Features

Rights & Disclaimers

Authority & Audience

Blog Publishing Activity

Post Features

Archiving

results12/48

%

post-secondary institution

OCCUPATION

BLOGGER

%

(n=58)

Distinguished/

Chaired Prof.

Professor/

Full Prof. +

OCCUPATION

BLOGGER

AGE

years

(range 25 to 70 years old)

mean real age

BLOGGER

(range 0 to 39 years)

mean professional age

years

AGE

BLOGGER

%

are male

GENDER

BLOGGER

ESTABLISHED PUBLICATION AND SERVICE HISTORY

BLOGGER

monograph (author)book chapter

peer-reviewed article

comment (journal)book review

conference proceedingsessay.article.op-ed (other)

textbookmonograph (editor)book review (other)

BLOGGER

SERVICE

0% 100%

Manuscript/book

evaluator

Journal article

referee

Journal editor/

associate editor38%

70%

79%

BLOGGER

91% have

performed

at least 1 of

these service

activities

%

BLOG INSTANCES

publish to 2 or more blogs

BLOGGER

%

do not tweet

MICROBLOGGING

BLOGGER

%

first blog published to

BLOG HISTORY

BLOGGER

(57% between 5 to 8 years old)

mean blog age

years

BLOG AGE

BLOG

IDENTITY

Real name | Both | Pseudonym

84 138% %%

BLOG

%

BLOGGING

update their blog 1+

times per week

BLOGGER

%

BLOGGING

published a new post

within the previous week

BLOG

%

make all of their posts

publicly available

POSTING

BLOGGER

Average posts per month

(2,726 posts published August 1-31, 2010)

posts

POSTING

BLOG

PRIMARY AUDIENCE

0% 100%

General public

Colleagues and

professional peers

Everyone elsestudents, family, friends, others

8%

32%

61%

BLOGGER

%

ENGAGEMENT

employ a post

commenting feature

BLOGGER

%

respond to comments

ENGAGEMENT

BLOGGER

%

post comments to other

blogs 1+ times per week

ENGAGEMENT

BLOGGER

%

COMMENTS

of most recent posts

had zero comments

BLOG

So looked at posts

from 1 year earlier

BLOG

COMMENTS

COMMENTS 2009

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

0 1 2-3 4-5 6-10 11-19 ≥ 20

COMMENTS

PO

STS

BLOG

RIGHTS & USE

Creative

Commons (n=13)

Copyright

Statement(n=34)

%

feature 1 or more

statements or licenses

BLOG

%

DISCLAIMERS

have an explicit or implicit

disclaimer-style statement

Own

opinion

Not

responsible

Advice

BLOG

%

COMMENT POLICY

have an explicit or implicit

comment policy or guidelines

Moderation

Tone &

language

Copyright &

licenses

BLOG

%

EDITING

edit posts after publication

BLOGGER

… only 2 blogs included

a policy or statement

BLOG

Public 100%

Subject to

critical

review 68%

Allows use and

exchange 94%Scholarly

record

80%

66% agree with

all three criteria

Association of Research

Libraries (1986).

Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W.,

& Helland, P. (2002).

SCHOLARSHIP

BLOGGER

%

… to present

INVITATIONS

BLOGGER

%

… to collaborate

INVITATIONS

BLOGGER

%

… to serve

INVITATIONS

BLOGGER

%

INVITATIONS

… to publish

BLOGGER

monograph (author)

book chapterpeer-reviewed article

comment (journal)

book review

conference proceedingsessay.article.op-ed (other)

textbook

monograph (editor)

book review (other)

BLOGGER

SCHOLARY LIFE

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY

RESEARCH CREATIVITY

RESEARCH QUALITY

WRITING QUALITY

WRITING EFFICIENCY

SHARING PRE-PUBS

TEACHING QUALITY

WORK ENJOYMENT

GREATER VISIBILITY

PROMOTION

IMPROVED

NEITHER

IMPAIRED

BLOGGER

%

preservation for public access

& use into the indefinite future

BLOGGER

PRESERVATION

BLOGGING OVER TIME

About the same 35%

Somewhat more 14%

Somewhat less 25%

A lot less 17%

A lot more 8%

BLOGGER

if?What

51/48

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

Devastated,

both emotionally and

professionally.

Pretty

bad.

Very

sad.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

Mad as hell.

I’d do something

drastic [in response].

Pretty

peeved. Angry

& upset.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

I don’t have to

do it anymore. I get half an hour of my

life back.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

Not welcomed

but not tragic …

I’d get over it.

Probably

have a drink & forget about it.

Pour another cup

of coffee & get back to work.Drop out …

until something else

comes along.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

It would take an

extreme catastrophe.

How would

that happen?

What’s

59/48

next?

THANKS TO …Dr. Helen R. Tibbo

Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway

Dr. Jeffrey Pomerantz

Paul Jones

Dr. Richard Marciano

Dr. Cal Lee

Dr. Deborah Barreau

THANKS FOR …Beta Phi Mu 2010 Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

School of Library and Information Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

… AND THANK YOU

CAROLYN HANKEmail: carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca

Phone: 514.398.4684

Web: http://ils.unc.edu/~hcarolyn

Slideshow:

QUESTIONS