I think the following is a fair representation of what kicked off the very short editorial paper published today in PLOS Computational Biology. In addition the timeline gives an idea that coming up with the manuscript was quick relative to publication but isn’t that always how it is, the idea is easy relative to getting it published.
1. Feb 11-13 attended Lysosomal Disease Network 10th Annual World symposium in San Diego – I was live tweeting from talks and posters as well as presenting a poster on ODDT and rare diseases. Walking to dinner one night with Ethan Perlstein we discussed the lack of live tweeters and the 1000’s of patients globally that could benefit from hearing what was going on a the meeting. We discussed the idea to write a paper on how to live tweet at such scientific conferences.
2. Feb 12-13 we send a couple of draft emails to each other called “10 simple (10 commandments) rules of tweeting at scientific conferences” and also do a literature search for other guidelines on tweeting.
3. March 3rd we had a final draft paper and it was submitted to PLOS Computational Biology.
4. March 4th – I had to change article type to an editorial and update financial disclosure.
5. April 10th – first automated email telling me paper was in review.
6. April 30th – reviews received
7. May 11th – Corrections submitted
8. May 22nd – June 17 multiple communications with Editor and PLOS staff to find out if paper is now acceptable.
9. June 18th – paper acecpted
10. June 26- July 14- Had to work on a new image as we submitted one of a phone displaying twitter logo, a room packed full of attendees at a conference and a picture of the world..needed to be CC BY 4.0.. At this point I engaged my cousin Neil Dufton who has a talent for illustration.. However we also benefited greatly from assistance at the journal to increase resolution which always seems to be an issue with the figures I submit here. Image resolution is not my strong point.
11. July 24th Copy edited manuscript edited.
12. August 21st – published.
Our goal with this is to reach people who have never tweeted at a conference before and maybe this will serve as an entry to live tweeting.
If there are other useful conference tweeting resources we missed please let us know and I will post on the PLOS comments page.
We hope this will represent a basic primer for tweeting at science conferences. It is easy, it is fun and you get to know people all over the world that appreciate your sharing what you heard and putting it in a tweet.
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