Researchers and information professionals on Twitter (X)

from connectivity to social authority

Abstract

Objective: to identify the presence, visibility and performance of Brazilian researchers and professionals in Information Science on Twitter(X).
Methodology: the study is exploratory with a descriptive quantitative approach, with data collection via Followerwonk to map users who present themselves as librarians, archivists, museologists or information scientists in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Results: 17,874 accounts were identified, created between 2006 and 2021, with emphasis on users from Brazil (11.4%), Spain (10.6%) and Mexico (9.6%). Regarding social connectivity, 89.46% of users have up to 500 followers and 94.5% of profiles have low or intermediate social authority.
Conclusions: although they are present, the performance of the accounts analyzed in terms of connectivity and social authority allows us to infer that researchers and information professionals still need to use Twitter(X) in a relevant way.