Who tweets climate change papers? investigating publics of research through users’ descriptions

and in the public sphere, they were heralded as potential indicators of the so-called « societal impact of research » along with other social media metrics [2, 3]. However, the strict focus on event count (i.e. number of tweets, number of retweets) was confronted to a lack of theoretical grounding as to what these traces really measure. Scholars thus looked to investigate the con- texts in which research circulate on Twitter, understood as the dimensions that give meaning to indicators [4]. Challenges remain in capturing these contextual elements as digital scholarly communication studies need to move between the scales of individual documents and aggre- gated corpora where contexts may shift [5]. Methodological framework also need to account that information provided on Twitter is generated by users as well as not directly organized for research purposes [6–8]. Meanwhile, discussions about issues like climate change, public health, and artificial intelli- gence moved to social media, highlighting the political ramifications of research [9–12]. As such, studies about science communication, policy and evaluation increasingly aim to under- stand the reach of scholarly outputs in the public sphere. Our study focuses on the case of cli- mate change as representative of environmental challenges. Specifically, climate change communication aims to foster environmental action by influencing decision making and translating new knowledge in everyday practices to limit our ecological footprint [13]. Climate

change issues reflect other increasingly urgent matters, such as biodiversity loss, extreme weather events, massive migrations, and scarcer access to basic resources [11, 14]. As discus- sions about climate change are increasingly salient on Twitter, scholars and other actors of the public diffusion of research moves to the platform to share relevant knowledge and engage with stakeholders more broadly [11, 15–17]. As some social media platforms like Twitter make their data accessible to the scholarly community, it makes it possible to directly examine the resonance of climate change research in the public sphere. Public conversations of climate change research on Twitter Reflecting a large scope of topics and issues, a diversity of publics are concerned with climate change [16, 17]. On the one hand, a tracking of the release of the IPCC 5th assessment report found that the majority of Twitter engagement came from individual bloggers and concerned citizens who provided alternative framing than that of decision-makers, journalists, and scien- tists [17]. On the other hand, scientists discussing climate change on Twitter engage mostly with other scientists but have been seen to communicate their research to decision-makers, journalists and the general public as well [16]. Typically, scientific knowledge production and communication begins with scholars and research institutions from all disciplines, and synthe- sis are produced for policymakers [14]. Journalists, medias, scientists and other communica-

tion professionals then play a role communicating and framing issues in the public sphere [18, 19]. Civil society, concerned citizens, health or environment professionals, as well as political organizations and advocates also engage with climate change for personal, political or profes- sional motivations [20, 21]. As all these actors contribute differently to discussions about cli- mate change, the visibility of research documents on social media made the communication of related issues no longer the prerogative of scientists and journalists only [17]. The reach of cli- mate change research may thus be modulated by the influence, background and motivationf of those who share it on Twitter. Twitter play a significant role in informational communication as well as political discussion and action, especially for issues like climate change [16, 17, 22–24]. Within these conversations, scholars discuss relevant research with colleagues, foster new collaborations, engage in political actions, share their work more broadly, or keep in touch with the latest news [25]. This increased participation by researchers is linked with a significant volume of scholarly PLOS ONE Who tweets climate change research papers? PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268999 June 3, 2022 2 / 17 However, full data obtained from Altmetric, Dimensions, Twitter and Web of Science require access to these services. Interested reader can contact Thomson Reuters (Web of Science: http:// thomsonreuters.com/en/products-services/ scholarly-scientific-research/scholarly-search-and-

discovery/web-of-science.html) and Altmetric (https://www.altmetric.com/research-access/) for further access. Funding: This research was funded through a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (767-2017- 1329), the SSHRC Insight Grant Understanding the societal impact of research through social media, and received financial contribution from the CIRST. It also benefited of financial support from the Fonds de recherche du Que´bec – Socie´te´ et Culture, the Universite´ du Que´bec à Montre´al, and the Canada Research Chairs Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.