What people study when they study Twitter: classifying Twitter related academic papers

摘要

PURPOSE: udSince its introduction in 2006, messages posted to the microblogging systemudTwitter have provided a rich dataset for researchers, leading to the publicationudof over a thousand academic papers. This paper aims to identify this publishedudwork and to classify it in order to understand Twitter based research.udDESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH:udFirstly the papers on Twitter were identified. Secondly, following a review of theudliterature, a classification of the dimensions of microblogging research wasudestablished. Thirdly, papers were qualitatively classified using open codedudcontent analysis, based on the paper’s title and abstract, in order to analyzeudmethod, subject, and approach.udFINDINGS:udThe majority of published work relating to Twitter concentrates on aspects ofudthe messages sent and details of the users. A variety of methodologicaludapproaches are used across a range of identified domains.udRESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS:udThis work reviewed the abstracts of all papers available via database search onudthe term “Twitter” and this has two major implications: 1) the full papers are notudconsidered and so works may be misclassified if their abstract is not clear, 2)udpublications not indexed by the databases, such as book chapters, are notudincluded.udORIGINALITY/VALUE:udTo date there has not been an overarching study to look at the methods andudpurpose of those using Twitter as a research subject. Our major contribution is toudscope out papers published on Twitter until the close of 2011. The classificationudderived here will provide a framework within which researchers studyingudTwitter related topics will be able to position and ground their workud