Using social media metrics to identify science communicators in Canada Germana Barata 1,4 , Michelle Riedlinger 2, Alexandre Schiele 3 , Juan Pablo Alperin 4 1 Laboratory of Advanced Studies in Journalism, State University of Campinas, UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil 2 Communication Dept., University of the Fraser Valley, UFV, City, Canada 3 UQAM East Asia Observatory, Université du Québec au Montréal, UQAM, Montreal, Canada 4 School of Publishing, Simon Fraser University, SFU, Vancouver, Canada Abstract—As part of a project mapping the new landscape of science communication in Canada, we recognize that social media has allowed non-traditional science communicators to participate as content producers. Yet their practices are not visible to the mainstream science communication community because these social media communicators build networks independently of professional member associations. This project identifies and maps science communicators on Instagram, Twitter, and blogs in Canada using data gathered for creating social media scholarly metrics (Altmetrics) and from social media platforms directly (with the help of the Netlytic tool). Using a combination of automated methods (querying the database of Altmetric LLC and application programming interface of Instagram) and manual searches, we identified hashtags, keywords and users, and then filtered them to those who were geolocated in Canada. We identified 56 science communicators on Instagram, 196 on Twitter and 60 bloggers. Our findings show a rich picture of activity on social media within Canada, mainly in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Identifying these accounts is a first step towards documenting the innovative practices of these communicators so that associations such as the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (SWCC) and the Association des communicateurs scientifique du Québec (ACS) can provide better professional support and improve policies related to science communication practices. I. INTRODUCTION Social media has changed the way we communicate, including the ways in which we communicate science (Brossard & Schefeule, 2013). This is unsurprising given the broad reach of the largest social media platforms. Worldwide, Facebook has reached more than two billion users, YouTube 1.9 billion, WhatsApp more than 1.5 billion, Instagram one billion, and Twitter 355 million (Statista, 2018a). Of these, Instagram is growing the fastest. Twitter, although having the smallest number of active users, has a lot of visibility. Anyone interested in sharing scientific information with the general public can use social media to freely speak, as well as co- create content with their audiences (Rollwagen et al., 2017). As such, social media has the potential to foster public dialogue. It is rich for direct communication between scientists, experts, universities, NGOs and society, without the need for mediation by journalists. The broadband connection to the Internet in Canada reaches 86% of homes. The majority of Canadians spend between three to four hours daily on the Internet and around 64% of them enjoy engaging on social media (CIRA, 2018). Facebook is the second main source of news for Canadians, just after television (Abacus Data, 2017), which demonstrates the growing relevance of this social media to Canadians’ daily lives. Among Internet users in Canada, 80% use Facebook, 39% Instagram and 35% Twitter (Statista, 2018b). Social media has drawn the attention of information scientists who have analysed ways of measuring the circulation of research on social media—so called altmetrics (Priem et al., 2010). While altmetrics can be collected and captured by anyone, a British company, Altmetric, is one of the most widely used sources of altmetrics data (Robinson- García et al., 2014). Altmetric tracks how scientific articles and documents are shared online by looking for links and mentions on various platforms, including Twitter. Researchers have proposed using these engagements as alternative indicators to measure the impact of science outside the walls of academia (Bornmann, 2014). Although altmetrics have limitations related to the “heterogeneity of social media acts, users and motivations” (Haustein, 2016, p.4), and the social activity tracked cannot be compared to social impact, it provides rich data to track and analyze publics interested in consuming scientific information. Therefore, we suggest that social media traces of research can be used to study science communication, science communicators and writers, and to produce indicators that might motivate scientists and institutions to track the attention of their public outreach activities. To begin work on developing social media indicators of public outreach, we first needed to identify the extent to which science communication activities are taking place on social media. As such, in this paper we identify and map science communicators on social media in Canada using altmetrics and social media platforms as a source of data. Our goals are to understand the new landscape of science communication in Canada, provide visibility to social media science communicators, and stimulate networking among them. Moreover, we believe such work may assist Canada’s professional science communication organizations, the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (SWCC) and the Association du communicateurs scientifique du Québec (ACS), in providing better training and support to their members, and to promote and improve policies and practices