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

documents being shared, with variations across disciplines, publication channels and cultural contexts [1, 26]. While patterns of scholarly communication on Twitter remain to be docu- mented in detail, one key promise is that it has democratized access to research by allowing it to circulate more broadly and outside of academia. The digital traces left by scholarly documents have been heralded as potential indicators of the « societal impact of research », or altmetrics [27]. Previous research focused on the analysis of traces on Twitter as 1) data collection is easier than for most other platforms; 2) scholarly output is readily shareable through the inclusion of links in tweets; and 3) tweets are available to non-academic publics [28, 29]. However, it remains unclear what these traces reflect. On the one hand, there are multiple understandings of what is called the « societal impact of research » [3, 29–31]. On the other hand, as the com- munication of research on Twitter involves mediation processes and is not intended toward a clear objective, Twitter scholarly metrics do not reflect a clear phenomenon [1]. The initial focus on counts has now shifted to more comprehensive studies of the contexts in which docu- ments are shared and what they mean for the communication of research outside of academia [4, 32]. Our study aims to further describe these contexts by focusing on the publics of climate change research as understood by their Twitter profile descriptions. Climate change research topics range from the physical processes of climate change to its

direct and indirect repercussions on communities and the environment, as well as means of mitigation, adaptation and communication to counter the ongoing process [33, 34]. Two events have been at the core of climate change research and policy discussions in recent years: the pub- lication of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (IPCC 5AR) in 2013 and the COP 21 leading to the Paris Agreement in 2015 [17, 35–37]. In one instance, non-elite actors–individual users who are not affiliated to a specific media, nonprofit, or scientific organization, such as bloggers, activists, or the general public–were able to draw attention, as indicated by their presence (35%) in the hundred most mentioned users, in discussing and framing the IPCC 5AR Working Group 1 contribution [17]. Scholars and research professionals contributed to both discussions–the IPCC 5AR and COP 21 events -, highlighting their interest for different topics than the general public, and indicating a shift in their public communication patterns. As such, scholars were seen to have a hybrid role of communicator and advocate, while mostly communicating with journalists and other scholars rather than directly to policymakers and the general public [16]. Conversations on Twitter build on a series of affordances, such as hashtags (#), mentions (@) or links to external documents, as well as metadata that allows for the characterization of every tweets (ex. time of publication, number of likes) and users (profile description, picture, number of followers, etc.) [16, 38, 39]. Users usually engage with accounts they are familiar

with or which post content relevant to them [40, 41]. Scholarly communication on Twitter relies on the possibility of adding links to external documents to make research outputs visible [39]. Authors and publishers may tweet links to their papers to promote them, and eventually foster engagement that will benefit them–such as an higher number of citations–whereas scholars may tweet or retweet documents they find relevant [3]. Altogether, users who actively engage with a paper may do so by being prompted by other accounts, whether because a publi- cation was relevant, funny or controversial [42, 43]. Influential users, such as communicators or celebrities, may engage their network more easily, while communities may be created around specific documents to topics [4, 44]. Investigating and representing users in public communication of research on Twitter On Twitter, the abundance of informational content fostered an engagement by political users, communication professionals and organizations, as well as a representation of actors of the PLOS ONE Who tweets climate change research papers? PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268999 June 3, 2022 3 / 17