Social Media in STM Part 2: Social Publishing – Usage and Abusage

Author: Daniel Pollock, Vice President & Lead Analyst

This report focuses on social publishing behaviors and tools, such as wikis and blogs, which empower all STM professionals to create and share content free and without publisher input. It follows on from Outsell’s report “Social Media in STM Part 1: Social Networking” (December 16, 2008), which examined the social networking, community sites, and venues for social media in STM. This report – Part 2 – offers a comprehensive study of the usage patterns of social publishing tools. It looks at the new workflow practices that are beginning to emerge and provides essential insight and recommendations about the opportunities and challenges social publishing creates for scholarly and commercial publishers in STM. The report includes:

- Definition of key concepts related to social publishing;
- Analysis of the use of social publishing mechanisms by end-users to consume content, and its use to disseminate content;
- Implications and key trends in social publishing;
- Detailed lists including name, weblink, intended audience, contributors, and editors of selected medical wikis and selected scientific & technical wikis;
- A list of featured wikibooks and whether they are also available in PDF;
- Essential actions for information providers.