Academia Goes Facebook? The Potential of Social Network Sites in the Scholarly Realm

Abstract

Social network sites (SNS) have not only become a fundamental part of the Web, but also increasingly offer novel communicative and networking possi- bilities for academia. Following a short presentation of the typical functions of (science-specific) SNS, we firstly present the state of knowledge regarding aca- demic usage practices, both in general purpose SNS and in science-specific SNS. Secondly, we assess potential impacts by addressing identified key issues such as privacy, the role of pseudonymity, and the specific form of informal communi- cation in question. In particular, we focus on the issue of network effects and the challenge of multiple channels, which presents itself as a major hurdle for an effective implementation of SNS in academia. Despite these difficulties, we come to the conclusion that SNS are, in principle, functional for scholarly communi- cation and that they have serious potential within academia.