Edge perspectives in online scholarly communities: A network analysis of #critlib

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe use of Twitter by scholars for public engagement is well‐established in the literature. However, fewer studies have looked into the composition of users engaged in scholarly communication on Twitter. This paper considers the degree to which Twitter chats are dominated by established versus emerging or amateur scholars through an investigation of #critlib, a hashtag around which library and information scholars and practitioners have congregated. #critlib Tweets over a period of three months are examined using social network analysis to determine the users most central to the conversation. The findings show that #critlib serves as an important space for emerging and amateur scholars to participate in the co‐creation of knowledge alongside experts in the field of LIS across a dispersed global network. The paper contributes to our knowledge of the #critlib community itself, suggests an impact of social media on the composition of scholarly communities, and deepens our understanding of networked participatory scholarship through the introduction of the idea of edge perspectives.