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Guidelines on how to use this site.............................................................................. 1

Introduction........................................................................................................... 1

Social Media ......................................................................................................... 1

Key aspects of being online ................................................................................... 2

Identification ..................................................................................................... 2

Netiquette .......................................................................................................... 2

Ethics ................................................................................................................ 3

Use of images and other types of digital content .................................................... 4

Using Blogs........................................................................................................... 4

Customisation.................................................................................................... 4

Blog comments.................................................................................................. 5

Tags & Categories ............................................................................................. 5

Participating in Discussion Fora & writing on people’s wires (personal pages) ...... 6

Documents ............................................................................................................ 6

Formatting......................................................................................................... 6

Guidelines on how to use this site

Introduction

As part of the virtual Doctoral School we have developed a set of guidelines for all

the members of this network. These guidelines provide advice and practical hints on

how to use social media in an academic context.

Below you will find the current version of those guidelines. The guidelines will be

revised and updated as necessary to keep up with the developments of the

participatory web.

Social Media

Social Media refers to interactive web-technologies which enable individuals to create

and disseminate information widely and in an interactive way. It consists of a set of

tools and approaches to produce and share content, collaborate, and also record this

process as part of a shared “journey”. Social Media allows the individual to take part

in a wider context, where they can make their work more available and open to

discussion. It can also facilitate opportunities to create new forms of professional

networking and participation in distributed learning communities, which will

ultimately help raise one’s professional profile.

The decision to use social media should always be based on the goals set out by the

individual and/or their team. Decisions regarding the use of social media should never

be driven by the wish of ‘playing’ with any currently fashionable application, but

rather by the need to complement or provide alternatives to face to face networking

and collaboration across time and space. Hence, it’s crucial to clearly define goals and

purposes for its use, as well as identifying its potential and added value even before

starting using these technologies.

For those facilitating group activity within the Virtual Doctoral School, we strongly

advise you plan for a medium-term member activity strategy and keep updating it

based on the group’s response. Finally, we recommend facilitators ease the

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introduction of their peers onto this space by providing guidance and promoting

engaging dialogues.

Key aspects of being online

Anything we publish online becomes part of our digital footprint, which inevitably

has an impact on our Digital Identity (reputation). That is not to say that having an

online presence is negative. These days we could argue just the opposite.

Nevertheless, we do need to consider the pros and the cons of being online. Below we

list some of the key aspects to bear in mind when venturing into the social media

world.

Identification

Use your name. Do not create several online ‘personas’ as part of your professional

profile. Be consistent. It will help people recognise you across networks and

communities. It also helps with the google search!

Make sure the profile name being publicly displayed in the network is your real name,

even if your username is a set of numbers and/or letters (eg. Sal74). After all, you are

not a robot!

Fill out your personal profile page with relevant information. Sharing your research

interests helps others identify a connection with you.

Add a face to your name. Pictures are nice!

Do not publish any personal information you don’t wish others to have access to. Not

everyone needs to know your mobile phone or home address!

Netiquette

Make relevant and respectful contributions to the network using the different

communication tools available: blogs, discussion fora, member’s wires (personal

pages), etc. Try to add value to those environments, by sharing meaningful

information and insights.

Communicate with care. In this space your writing will portray you and your work.

So, develop a voice that represents you as an approachable individual. Do not use this

space to ‘push information’ on to other members, but rather to engage in

conversations and create collaborative links. Disseminating information online

effectively requires the development of such synergies. Just think about it: even

broadcast TV is interactive these days!

Adopt an accessible writing style. It should be less formal than academic writing, but

also not as colloquial as street talk. Find a balance that reflects your personality.

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Do not tolerate any kind of abusive or aggressive language/behaviour in this space,

nor react to it by using the same register. Yet do not ignore it either; rather report it.

Remember: we are all humans. Online interaction is not that different from face to

face contact. Yet the computer screen may convey a sense of a shield. It should not be

an excuse to post inconsiderate remarks or comments about other people or their

ideas.

Provide and allow critical feedback from your peers. This is probably the greatest

added value of connecting to like-minded people. However there’s a fine line between

constructive and patronising feedback. Always reflect about what you are about to

publish. Ask yourself: Would I reply in the same way in a face to face context? How

would I feel if I got the same kind of feedback?

Be aware of possible cultural differences and linguistic styles amongst members.

Distinguish between ‘flaming’ and lack of linguistic sensibility.

Do you understand what I’m saying? (I’m not calling you stupid! This is just an

expression commonly used in my native language to check you are still with me ;-))

Avoid writing entire phrases in upper case. It means YOU ARE SHOUTING! To

highlight any given chunks of content use bold or *asterisks*. Use it with moderation

though. Do not underline words. People will think it is a link. Use italics instead.

Keep your comments in blogs and discussion fora focused. Try not to go off-topic. It

doesn’t help the discussion and discourages other people from participating.

Furthermore, it doesn’t increase your credibility amongst your community either. You

do have a (digital) professional reputation to keep!

Share your expertise. Everyone in this network will have something to contribute to

others’ learning. Everyone will have different experiences, ideas and opinions to

share. Don’t hold it back. The more you share, the more you’ll receive, and the more

you will learn. Communication is a two-way road.

As for the full script of your PhD dissertation, do share it too, but only after you have

passed the Viva please!

Ethics

Be aware of the ethics. If your research deals with sensitive information, make sure

everything you make publicly available does not infringe any ethical agreement or

jeopardise your research. This site offers spaces for private/closed communication for

such cases. If you are unsure about the ethics of publishing any given content, contact

your supervisor before you hit the ‘publish’ button.

For more information on Research Governance & Ethics at the University of Salford

browse here.

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Use of images and other types of digital content

Use images which are copyright free, or which you have been granted permission to

(re)use. The same applies to other forms of (digital) content you may decide to use in

this space. Further information about this can be found here.

Always credit authors for their work. Reference citations (The full reference usually

comes at the bottom of your blogpost). Do not copy information created by other

people as if it were yours, even if it was just published on a random forum/blog

online. In such cases, make sure to always provide a link to the original source. You

also like others to credit you for your work, don’t you? So, remember to credit their

work too!

Using Blogs

Customisation

Give your blog a title and a URL (web address suffix in this case) that relates to you

or expresses your research interests. eg.: johnsmith or urban_regeneration. Keep the

URL short. Don’t try to invent strange URLs. What may be seen as funny now, in a

couple of months down the line might not. And URLs can stay there forever... and

that is a long time!

Personalise your blog. Choose a blog theme that resembles your area of research.

White and dark backgrounds make reading on the screen easier. Always consider your

readership!

Create an ‘About’ page so people can learn more about you as a researcher. Use it to

publish your biography and summary of your research.

Create a ‘Contact’ page to allow people to get in touch with you privately, if they

wish so. Remember, by default your blog is accessible outside the network site. This

means non network members can also read and comment on your blog. Don’t worry;

the chances of you getting hundreds of emails a day are slim! If you do, that’s

probably spam! Add square brackets [ ] around the @ to avoid spam. eg:

username[@]mail.com

Add an “Articles’ page where you can list all your academic publications.

Transform your blog into a ‘blogfolio’ (an interactive e-portfolio)

Link your blog to your other professional network profiles. eg: LinkedIn,

academia.edu. It helps people find you in there.

Write a disclaimer, and add it to your blog. This basically protects you and your

institution from being persecuted. You can opt to add a new page with a full

description. However, for personal blogs, a full sentence or paragraph summarising

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the intents of your blog might be easier for readers to engage with. Add your single

line/single paragraph disclaimer to your blog template (through the widget>>text

options in your dashboard). See examples of blog disclaimers here.

Post frequently. At least once a week. It keeps your audience interested.

Write short rather than long blogposts (one screen size posts). But don’t write in post-

it format. You need to engage your audience.

Write from a personal point of view. There is nothing more boring than reading

blogposts which just collect information from other sources. What people will look

for in your blog is your personal, passionate and reflected opinion about a current

event, or any given topic in your research area.

Blog comments

You can choose to hold comments in moderation (default option). It means that you

will receive an email notifying you of it, and asking you to approve it on your

dashboard. This allows you to read comments before they are published for others to

read and decide if it is appropriate for publishing.

Blog comments are used to trigger discussions. Visit other blogs and add your

thoughts to it, if you think you have something meaningful to add. Leave a link to

your own blog (in the respondent’s details box), so others know where to ‘find’ you.

Subscribe to comments to keep up with the discussion.

NB: Saying things like: I like your blog. Nice post! etc is not as productive as starting

a conversation on that topic.

As the owner of a blog, reply to people’s comments, whenever you have something

else relevant to add.

Do not delete or leave comments unpublished if they express an opinion contrary to

yours. See them as an opportunity to explore new ideas and drive new discussions.

Preventing the publication of such comments on your blogposts just annoys people. If

they don’t get it published there, they might publish it on their own blog or

somewhere else, which is far worse!

Some comments are harder to answer than others. It is OK to leave comments

awaiting moderation for a couple of days until you have found the right tone to

answer them. Just don’t forget them!

Tags & Categories

Tags, also called labels, are a kind of micro meta-data often associated with online

user generated content. Tags are keywords created by online users to describe the

contents they create.

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Use as many tags as you possible can to classify and describe in detail the content of

individual blogposts. It helps your blog to be indexed higher by search engines.

Develop a set of categories for your blog (max.10). These should give your readers a

general idea about the topics featured in your blog. Categories are useful to organise

the contents of your blog. When users click on one of the categories, your blog with

list all posts which have been categorised with that specific category. It’s a great

feature for blogs’ internal organisation and search of content.

Managing your blogging expectations

Blogs are home for individuals’ public thoughts and ideas. Do not start a blog to

become popular. See a blog as a shared space for reflection and construction of

dialogues. Eventually, it will get known in your area. Until it does, there are some

aspects to bear in mind. Link here for some practice tips and guidance regarding this

issue.

Participating in Discussion Fora & writing on people’s wires (personal pages)

Make use of the netiquette & Ethics guidelines described above.

Documents

Any document you upload to this Social Network Site should be yours or comply with

copyleft regulations. No copyrighted materials should be uploaded on to this website

without the expressed permission of its author, in which case they should explicitly be

credited for.

Always brand your document. It does not have to be anything fancy, but it helps

people recognise the source. How many time have you come across documents in your

hard drive which you no longer remember where they are from or who they belong

to?

Formatting

Whenever possible pdf your documents before uploading them on to the Network

Site. It is easier to upload. It works practically on every system.

Add a title to your document.

Add a note at the end of the document with your name, and affiliation, etc.

Always number the pages of your document.

Copyright your document with an appropriate license.

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Last updated: 02 June 2010

Cristina Costa

C.MendesdaCosta@salford.ac.uk

Research and Graduate College

University of Salford

This work has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-

Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.

More on CC licenses here