Analysis on the use of social media as a collaboration tool by korean science and technology researchers

This study analyzed use behavior of social media by Korean science and technology researchers, identify what social media that researchers mainly use to collaborate, and establish service strategies.

This study classified social media into 6 types and analyzed the social media by types, research topics, and periods. To do so, the study divided social media by types, conducted a survey questionnaire on 302 Korean science and engineering researchers, and analyzed the results. The study also examined the degree of social media use for research, purpose, and the types of tools and conducted empirical analysis.

It was demonstrated that Korean science and technology researchers frequently collaborate with researchers of the same institutions and same fields and use project-management and scheduling/conference tools among social media. Also, 60% or more of social media users were using social media to share information with other researchers who participated in the same project, and about 75% of non-users of social media had an intention to use social media in future research activities. The study results showed that science and technology researchers were using various social media tools, and had a higher tendency of using widely-known social media tools rather than tools focusing on a certain purpose or group such as researchers’ authoring activities or researchers’ social network services.

The results of this study can be utilized to establish the service strategy needed to promote collaboration among researchers. It also provides social media service providers with important information for setting up business strategies.