The research deals with the definition of social networking sites for
academic purposes, the date of their launch, the intellectual production of
academic communication sites, the need to use them, the dangers of using them,
and the exclusion of the most popular social networking sites.
(1) Research Gate, founded in 2008 in Berlin by Ijad Madisch, Horst
Fickenscher, and Sören Hofmayer, (2) the site of Academia.edu, which was
founded in 2008 in San Francisco by Richard Price, (3) Mendeley, founded in
2007 by three German doctoral students; and (4) the Zotero site, launched in
2006.
The study pointed out that it is advantageous to use social networking
sites for academics Such as: sharing and discovering sources, supporting
cooperation, developing identity and self, and communication.
The risk of using it to researchers: wasting time, lack of enough active
users, inefficient use, and lack of digital identity management.
The risk of using it on institutions: the spread of knowledge that can be
used badly by competitors, and lack of control over the reputation of institutions.
Finally, the study pointed to the existence of two views on the relationship
between the use of social networking sites and academic achievement: The first
point of view: confirms that the relationship is negative between social networking
sites and academic achievement, and the second view assumes a positive
relationship between them.