  This paper aims to map and identify topics of interest within the field of
Microbiology and identify the main sources driving such attention. We combine
data from Web of Science and Altmetric.com, a platform which retrieves mentions
to scientific literature from social media and other non-academic communication
outlets. We focus on the dissemination of microbial publications in Twitter,
news media and policy briefs. A two-mode network of social accounts shows
distinctive areas of activity. We identify a cluster of papers mentioned solely
by regional news media. A central area of the network is formed by papers
discussed by the three outlets. A large portion of the network is driven by
Twitter activity. When analyzing top actors contributing to such network, we
observe that more than half of the Twitter accounts are bots, mentioning 32% of
the documents in our dataset. Within news media outlets, there is a
predominance of popular science outlets. With regard to policy briefs, both
international and national bodies are represented. Finally, our topic analysis
shows that the thematic focus of papers mentioned varies by outlet. While news
media cover the wider range of topics, policy briefs are focused on
translational medicine, and bacterial outbreaks.
