The academic web profile as a genre of “self-making”
| Published date | 09 September 2019 |
| Pages | 760-774 |
| Date | 09 September 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-12-2017-0347 |
| Author | Helena Francke |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
The academic web profile as a
genre of “self-making”
Helena Francke
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lunds Universitet, Lund, Sweden and
Swedish School of Library and Information Science,
Högskolan i Borås, Boras, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The activities of academic researchers are increasingly regulated by neo-liberal ideals, including
expectationsthat researchers are visible onlineand actively promote theiroutput. The purpose of this paper is
to explorehow researchers take on this responsibility. It usesthe concepts of genre, authorshipand self-writing
in order to understand howthe story of an academic life is constructed on academicweb profiles.
Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative content analysis was conducted of material on 64 profiles
belonging to 20 researchers on institutional and personal websites, as well as on ResearchGate, Academica.
edu and Google Scholar.
Findings –The study shows that while institutional websites primarily contain researcher-produced
material, content on commercial platforms is often co-constructed through distributed authorship by the
researcher, the platform and other platform users. Nine different ways in which the profile of an “academic
self”may be said to highlight the particular strengths of a researcher are identified. These include both
metrics-based strengths and qualitative forms of information about the academic life, such as experience, the
importance of their research and good teaching.
Social implications –This study of academic web profiles contributes to a better understanding of how
researchers self-govern the story of their academic self, or resist such governance, in online environments.
Originality/value –The study furthers the knowledge of how researchers make use of and respond to
digital tools for online visibility opportunities and how the story of the “academic self”is “made”for such
public presentation.
Keywords Researchers, Academic social network sites, Academic web profiles, Distributed authorship,
Self-writing
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The activities of academic researchers are increasingly regulated by neo-liberal ideals. As a
result, the researchers’work –and the researchers themselves –become subject to market
ideologies and to evaluations which often are based on various types of metrics (e.g.
Hammarfelt et al., 2016; Duffy and Pooley, 2017; Delfanti, 2017). Researchers are expected,
by employers, funders, publishers and themselves, to be visible online and to actively
promote their output. Apart from other possibilities this may provide the researcher, such as
a chance to provide access to publications which are difficult to find or behind paywalls,
previous research has indicated that academic web profiles (Bukvova, 2012) and social
media (Nicholas et al., 2014) are used by researchers for such visibility. This study will
explore how researchers take on the responsibility of sharing information about themselves
in academic web profiles. The study thus contributes to knowledge about how researchers
make use of and respond to digital tools that provide opportunities for online visibility, and
how the story of the self is “made”for such public presentation.
The study concerns how public researcher “selves”are constructed in academic web
profiles. Focus is mainly on dedicated platforms including institutional websites and the
commercial services ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Google Scholar. These platforms in
many cases include not only information uploaded by the researcher, but also mash-ups and
user-generated as well as system-generated content. Consequently, the academic web profile
will be investigated as an example of a genre which is co-authored by the researcher and the
Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 5, 2019
pp. 760-774
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-12-2017-0347
Received 3 December 2017
Revised 1 December 2018
Accepted 6 December 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
760
OIR
43,5
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