Hazel Hall's presentation to PhD students as part of the ESRC Scottish Graduate School Doctoral Training Centre Information Science Pathway training day held at Edinburgh Napier University on 16th October 2012.

1. ESRC Scottish Doctoral Training Centre
Information Science Pathway
Training day 16th October 2012

2. Theme is networking
Context is information
science
Mix of
presentations, exercises
& discussions

3. First exercise
 Introductions
 In turn, each person around the table to introduce him/herself

4. ESRC Scottish Doctoral Training Centre
Information Science Pathway
Training day 16th October 2012
Networks and the research environment

5. Why focus on networking: individuals
 Networks are a resource for the conduct of affairs, giving
privileged access to, for example:
You hear about a free
 Information place at a conference for
a PhD student
 Opportunities
 Social status You are invited to apply
for the free place
 Individuals trade intangibles Your known connections
 Reputation have an influence as to
 Credibility whether or not you are
successful in your
 Friendship application for the free
 Collective knowledge place

6. Networks for research support
 In terms of research work, another key resource that
depends on networks is support for funding and other
forms of “buy-in”
 Often there is a preference/requirement for proposed projects run
jointly by two or more parties, both for applications for large
amounts of money and for small scale “competitions”
 An indication of how research findings will be disseminated across
the community is also a requirement of an application for funding
in most cases

10. Networks to help career development
 General support of research projects
 Committee work  PhD sponsorship
 Specific help, e.g. access to data subjects, sites for data
collection
 Committee work  PhD case study
 “Esteem” roles: peer reviewing, work for research
councils, editorial boards, conference programme
committees, keynote speaker invitations etc – and
associated travel
 Conference conversations  opportunities abroad
 Conference follow-up  book authorship

11. Internal organisational networks
 Internal projects also need resources
 Support in the form of funding, staffing, time, attention
 Access to those who can offer these resources, and your
ability to persuade them to share your
agenda, strengthens the chances that your proposed
projects will be supported

12. Network value is related to social capital
Social capital and the generation of intellectual capital
• Nahapiet, J. & Ghoshal. S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the
organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 242-266.
Social capital and knowledge sharing
• Widén-Wulff, G. & Ginman, M. (2004). Explaining knowledge sharing in
organizations through the dimensions of social capital. Journal of Information
Science, 30(5), 448-458.
Social capital, knowledge sharing and exchange theory
• Hall, H., Widén, G., & Paterson, L. (2010). Not what you know, nor who you
know, but who you know already: examining online information sharing behaviours
through the lens of social exchange theory. Libri, 60, 117-128.

13. Early usage of the term “social capital”
 Research in, and the literature of, Community Studies
concludes that social capital
 is found in networks of relationships
 depends on trust, co-operation and collective action
 supports the survival and function of city neighbourhoods
 supports childhood development in families

14. Central proposition of social capital
Networks of relationships are a resource for the conduct
of affairs
 Networks can:
 Be formal, e.g. family, class, school membership
 Have weak ties, e.g. friends of friends
 Have levels of focus: person, group, organisation, set of
organisations

15. Network types
Physical connection – co-
Friendship, liking, respect – location at work
evaluation of one person by another
Kinship/descent – biological ties

16. Dimensions of social capital
Structural dimension Overall pattern of connections among actors: who
reaches whom and how this is achieved.
Relational dimension Relationships developed through history of
interaction between actors.
Cognitive dimension Shared representations and interpretations.

17. Structural and relational dimensions
illustrated
Social network analysis to depict interactions (social/research-related) between
actors in a network
Before After

18. Cognitive dimensions of social capital
more difficult to illustrate
Social network analysis to depict awareness of research expertise amongst actors
Before After

19. Social capital is an unusual form of capital
 It’s owned jointly by partners in the relationship
 There’s no exclusive ownership of it
 It’s difficult to trade
 It has special features
 It can achieve ends that would be too costly to achieve otherwise,
 e.g. strong trust cuts down need for monitoring
 It can achieve “unique” ends impossible to achieve otherwise
 e.g. through the exploitation of weak ties

20. Networking to support research in context
 In general business terms
 “Getting on with people, especially at events”
 People wearing badges on a mission seek out new (sales) contacts
in “rich” environments
 In research environment
 Approach to working – from making connections to engaging in the
discourse of the domain
 Need to play a “long” game
 Some events are really worth attending, for example for information
science iDocQ, i3, ASIST Annual Meeting
 Some people are really worth seeing

21. Some peculiarities: established
researchers
 They know one another very well
 and it’s unlikely that you know much about the relational dimension
of their shared social capital
 Generally academics become less “conservative” as their
careers progress
 odd behaviours observed amongst professors (for example) are
probably just that – and are not something to be emulated
 You dress to inspire confidence, trust, credibility, assurance
 Your written communications should do the same
 Don’t begin “peculiar”!
 You want to be remembered for your research (and not your silly
hat/hysterical laughter/collection of teddies/partner’s pet name…)

22. Further peculiarities: information science
 Well-organised community
 Particularly in online spaces such as mailing lists and Twitter
 News spreads fast
 Small community
 Beware Dunbar’s number
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number