Thread by @itsreallymaia

Hot take: twitter threads deserve a place in the academic and scientific setting.
~a thread~

@drlynnchiu calls them “Paper Threads”. They’re an honest, plain-language, narrative-like retelling of an academic paper. To scientists and academics, this is a great way to distribute information to a far wider audience than print can. 1/

Twitter threads have a unique mechanism that f̶o̶r̶c̶e̶s̶ allows the author to build a story using limited space and purposeful pacing. The better the thread, the more likely it’s outreach will be beyond it’s original field. 2/

“Easy to read” and “engaging” probably aren’t the first words you think of when you hear “academic paper”. However, good Twitter threads can humanize the once faceless scientist and make the content accessible to people beyond the field. 3/

As @backlon put it, “A Twitter thread is a piece of writing that makes specific and intentional use of the tools and forms of an app to create meaning that’s more evocative than simple prose,” just like a poem. 4/

He continues, explaining how Twitter threads provide a powerful sense of caesura. A successful thread couldn’t be combined to recreate an article – rather, each tweet is a complete thought that are then sewn together with these thin grey lines. 5/

Now I’m sure you’re wondering, what does this have to do with academics and scientists? Studies have shown:
Scientists interact the most on Twitter over other social media (Nature)
Highly tweeted articles were cited 11x more (JMIR) 6/

Additionally, @redlipblenny [Isabelle M. Côté] and @emilysdarling found that academic scientists’ with over 1000 followers tweets successfully “sang from rooftops” rather than “preached to the choir”. 7/

They’re much like a presentation at a conference, except they’re readily offered to you in understandable, bite-sized pieces as a break from your typical doom scrolling. It eliminates needing to navigate a new site, allowing the reader to give full attention to the tweets. 8/

Even within my own field, I find it overly difficult to even read an abstract and gauge if an article is of interest to me. Twitter threads bring emphasis to the voice of the author and are often even written in first person, which is much more palatable for all readers. 9/

Twitter threads are unlike journal articles in that they tell a story – it feels like the author is explaining something to you and you specifically, rather than spouting jargon into the abyss. 10/

With the (new) tweet limit of 280 characters, there isn’t space for superfluous wording or unimportant details. The authors focus on the highlights and can draw attention to points of collaborative interest. 11/

As @GLJoyce wrote, “Threads are for engagement, not for selling”. Including a link to your publication at the end, however, can bring interested readers directly to where they can learn more. 12/

TLDR; Twitter threads are for more than just conspiracy theorists, and #ScienceTwitter is for more than just scientists! [END]

Works Cited, in order:
rb.gy/bv0jvo
rb.gy/dykaqi
rb.gy/mlkfsz
rb.gy/tcbcz1

For my "Comments Section" assignment for Reading and Writing in the Digital Age Spring 21