Researchers' communication on Twitter. A virtual ethnography in the area of information science

The present article analyzes the scientific communication that takes place on Twitter. Its aim is to understand and describe the types of scientific activities that occur on this platform, by identifying the type of information exchanged and the activities that researchers perform. Thus we attempt to better understand the number of times that research work is mentioned within a specific context. We followed a group of researchers and professionals with Twitter profiles who had published at least 3 articles in the journal EPI between 2009 and 2013. The research methodology was qualitative using virtual ethnography based on non-participant observation. Among the main conclusions, we found that researchers use Twitter mostly as a way to make their professional activity public and to disseminate their own research works or those of close collaborators, in order to give them more visibility and impact.