December 9, 2013:  Don’t Cite a Tweet as a Research Feat

A Canadian journal (Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology) released a study that shows tweets about scientific research are not equitable to citations from professional journals.  Phew!!!  Thank goodness, that debate is nipped in the bud.  Most research studies can't get a title in under 140 characters, let alone a whole finding or a whole paper.  Not surprisingly this has driven me to bad poetry (and even a reference to WVU's interim President, yes, Dr. Gordon Gee.)

#Hashtag Findings#

The Journal of A. I. S. T.

(bulwark: citation expertise)

Accepts no intent scholarly

From Tweets of research academe

Despite an obvious increase

In broadcasted statements pithy,

Characters one hundred forty

Don’t lend much to sagacity.

Social Media apparently

Doesn’t solicit gravity

With science’s discovery

And its value to all degrees.

“Google Effects on Memory;”

“Teenage Cases of Flared Acne;”

One cannot proclaim exactly:

“Journal of Cell Biology.”

All around the world, PHD’s

Crumbled to their unsteady knees,

Cursing all the powers that be:

Tenure granting authorities.

Peer-review methodology,

The backbone of credulity,

Makes impact elementary:

Nine hits for you, twenty for me.

Until some President (Dr. Gee?)

With nothing to lose so decrees

The Tweet can be C.V. worthy

No advancement can come from these.

When it comes to Twitter Hashtags,

They are seen as Journal TrashMags.