“Heterogeneous couplings”: Operationalizing network perspectives to study science‐society interactions through social media metrics

Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, vol. 72, pp. 595–610

Abstract

Abstract Social media metrics have a genuine networked nature, reflecting the networking characteristics of the social media platform from where they are derived. This networked nature has been relatively less explored in the literature on altmetrics, although new network‐level approaches are starting to appear. A general conceptualization of the role of social media networks in science communication, and particularly of social media as a specific type of interface between science and society, is still missing. The aim of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for appraising interactions between science and society in multiple directions, in what we call heterogeneous couplings. Heterogeneous couplings are conceptualized as the co‐occurrence of science and non‐science objects, actors, and interactions in online media environments. This conceptualization provides a common framework to study the interactions between science and non‐science actors as captured via online and social media platforms. The conceptualization of heterogeneous couplings opens wider opportunities for the development of network applications and analyses of the interactions between societal and scholarly entities in social media environments, paving the way toward more advanced forms of altmetrics, social (media) studies of science, and the conceptualization and operationalization of more advanced science‐society studies.

Authors 3

1. Rodrigo Costas corresponding Aachen Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands Centre for Science and Technology Studies

   Leiden University · Stellenbosch University

   Affiliation as printed

   Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands

   DST‐NRF Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch South Africa

   Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

   DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2. Sarah de Rijcke Aachen Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands Centre for Science and Technology Studies

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands

   Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Noortje Marres Aachen Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands Centre for Science and Technology Studies

   Leiden University · University of Warwick

   Affiliation as printed

   Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies University of Warwick Coventry UK

   Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands

   Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

   Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands