2025/06/18 by Cássio Cardoso Pereira, Stephannie Fernandes, Vinícius da Fontoura Sperandei · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Social Media in Health Education
paper · doi:10.1093/biosci/biaf101
openalex publication_date 2025/06/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/13
The Virtual Age, characterized by rapid and drastic changes in short periods of time, has fundamentally transformed the way individuals and institutions interact with information. As consumption habits evolve, traditional models of knowledge dissemination are increasingly challenged, requiring adaptation and innovation. In this dynamic scenario, scientific institutions face increasing pressure to remain relevant and effective in fulfilling their mission of transmitting the knowledge they produce. To do so, they need to reinvent their approaches, ensuring that scientific information reaches diverse audiences in a timely, accessible, and impactful manner. Their ability to evolve alongside technological advances will be crucial to maintaining the integrity of knowledge dissemination. Consequently, the Virtual Age presents both challenges and opportunities, urging scientific institutions to embrace innovation while remaining steadfast in their commitment to education and research (Ramirez-Bravo 2025). It is well known that the Internet and social media have profoundly shaped scientific communication (Kapoor et al. 2018). Previously, scientific journals were accessible only to specialists and academic institutions (Fyfe and Gielas 2020). Today, platforms such as LinkedIn, ResearchGate, and X (formerly Twitter) expand the visibility of research, allowing articles to be shared and discussed in real time (Kapoor et al. 2018, Habibi and Salim 2021, Thorp 2022). This revolution has democratized access to knowledge, making it more accessible to the general public and fostering collaborations among researchers from different parts of the world (Özkent 2022, Thorp 2022). In addition, the concept of open science has gained momentum, where researchers are encouraged to practice transparency and reproducibility in studies (Joseph 2013). Researchers have also started using social media to disseminate their content, increasing engagement and the spread of their work. However, there is still only an anecdotal presence of scientific journals on major social media platforms.