The Research Information Network offers a guide for researchers which discusses the use of social media specifically for research and academic purposes, in particular with regard to communication and collaboration. The guide is available to download free from http://rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers. There is also a single page of useful links to online resources including social bookmarking tools, presentation sharing tools and good practice examples of academic and research blogs.  Social Media Links and Resources for Researchers can be downloaded here from the link above.

Ready to Research has been created through the Support Centre for Open Resources in Education (SCORE) project based at the Open University. The site is a portal to a collection of Open Educational Resources (OERs) on research topics. http://www.readytoresearch.ac.uk

Social media is challenging and changing academic research. Appropriate use of social media software is an essential component of digital scholarship. Twitter is much maligned but as with all technology tools it’s the way in which it is used which maximises its affordances. At the very least, reducing pertinent comments to 140 characters or less is an excellent disipline. The LSE have published a guide to using Twitter, by Amy Mollett, Danielle Moran and Patrick Dunleavy, which can be downloaded as a pdf file here. Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities: A guide for academics and researchers