How do you tweet about research?

One of the fun things about working in a center for digital scholarship are the unexpected and creative questions. Although I spend less time doing reference than I used to, I often use reference questions as an opportunity to take a deep dive into a topic I haven't had time to explore. Recently, someone asked us how to tweet about research. After thinking about it, I realized I do actually have a formula. On the flip side, I get annoyed when journalists and media professionals fail to point to the original research they are discussing. Don't be that person! So here is my recipe for tweeting about research and other scholarly topics.

  • Abbreviated title or excerpt
  • Include a link to a DOI/handle/stable URL
  • Include Twitter handles for authors or key people involved in the work
  • Add 1-3 hashtags so that the communities I want to reach actually see it. If I'm trying to reach more than one audience, I send out separate tweets.
  • When I'm trying to highlight or excerpt several points, I sometimes write my Tweets in advance to make sure they are tweeted in a logical order.
  • Connect the tweet to a scheduled chat/event or conference when possible.