We’ll be joined by Colin Angus and Andy Tattersall from the School of Health and Related research and Kate O’Neill from the University Library for an exploration of the intersections between open research and public engagement. While Colin discusses his experiences of using social media to disseminate public health research, Andy and Kate will explore open access coverage of Wikipedia-cited research across the White Rose Universities. Our speakers will bring together different perspectives and experiences on the concepts and methodologies of open research and public engagement in order to examine the nature and degree of their overlap.

Colin Angus

The positives and pitfalls of using social media for science communication

Social media platforms such as Twitter offer a unique opportunity for researchers to engage with a wider audience, but how can we best use them to our advantage to communicate our research without them becoming a time sink? In this talk Colin will share his experiences (both good and bad) of using Twitter as a tool for science communication over the last few years and provide some practical advice to help you make the most of the medium.

Andy Tattersall and Kate O'Neill

Exploring open access coverage of Wikipedia-cited research across the White Rose Universities

Wikipedia is widely regarded as the world's leading knowledge encyclopaedia and much of that knowledge is underpinned by research evidence. Yet not all of that cited research is accessible to global society due to it being behind publisher paywalls. This talk will discuss a recent paper that explored how much of Sheffield's research was cited in Wikipedia and what percentage is Open Access.

Open Research Conversation: Open Research and Public Engagement