  Twitter is a micro-blogging social media platform for short messages that can
have a long-term impact on how scientists create and publish ideas. We
investigate the usefulness of twitter in the development and distribution of
scientific knowledge. At the start of the life cycle of a scientific
publication, twitter provides a large virtual department of colleagues that can
help to rapidly generate, share and refine new ideas. As ideas become
manuscripts, twitter can be used as an informal arena for the pre-review of
works in progress. Finally, tweeting published findings can communicate
research to a broad audience of other researchers, decision makers, journalists
and the general public that can amplify the scientific and social impact of
publications. However, there are limitations, largely surrounding issues of
intellectual property and ownership, inclusiveness and misrepresentations of
science sound bites. Nevertheless, we believe twitter is a useful social media
tool that can provide a valuable contribution to scientific publishing in the
21st century.
