Led by Katie Hughes (Office of Scholarly Communication, University Library) and Dr Anne Alexander (Cambridge Digital Humanities)

Social networking services aimed specifically at academics boast millions of users. Academia.edu, one of the most successful commercial platforms in this area, claims 33 million people have signed up their service, sharing 10 million uploaded papers on a site which enjoys 36 million unique visitors a month.

How can researchers, particularly those at the beginning of their academic careers, make effective use of academic social networking sites? What is the difference between sharing papers on a commercial platform such as Academia.edu, and open access publication and dissemination through institutional repositories or non-commercial services? What are the benefits and pitfalls of using academic social networks?