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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 4 | Page : 85-86 |
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Facebook and contemporary dental researches
Jafar Kolahi
Independent Research Scientist, Founder and Managing Editor of Dental Hypotheses, Isfahan, Iran
| Date of Web Publication | 29-Nov-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Jafar Kolahi
No. 24, Faree 15, Pardis, Shahin Shahr, Isfahan 83179 - 18981
Iran
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/denthyp.denthyp_51_17
How to cite this article:
Kolahi J. Facebook and contemporary dental researches. Dent Hypotheses 2017;8:85-6 |
Scientists are experiencing a growing demand to share research findings in social medias, for example, Facebook and Twitter.[1] Facebook is one among the well-known social media based in Menlo Park, California, which was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. According to Global Social Media Ranking 2017, Facebook is acknowledged to have been ranked first with 2047 million of active users,[2] yet a few previous reports showed that Facebook did not upper echelons in dental research.[3],[4] A general analysis of 2015 dental literature showed that Facebook was placed second after Twitter in a rank wise interpretation.[4] Such a status of dental literature in Twitter was discussed in a previous editorial.[5]
However, On September 29, 2017 dental literature was investigated with a PubMed query “1800/1/1”[PDAT]: “2017/12/31”[PDAT] AND jsubsetd[text] via Altmetric database (Altmetric LLP, London, UK). In that, 583,715 records were found, among which, 25,000 most recent results were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Also 151 dental journals were analyzed.
About 3340 Facebook posts were detected related to 25,000 contemporary dental articles (13.36%). Mostly, posts are generally from United States [Table 1], and the Journal of American Dental Association had the most number of related posts [Figure 1]. Rapid growth of Facebook post related to dental articles has been started from July 2014. Approximately, 90% of the dental journals received 0–25 Facebook posts. Outcome of this survey showed that Facebook is less common than Twitter [Figure 2], confirming the results of previous reports.[3],[4] It may be due to the fact that, Twitter is meant naturally for interacting to people you may not know and opinions are shared openly and quickly. | Figure 1: Top 20 dental journals with the highest number of related Facebook posts
Click here to view |
 | Figure 2: Number of posts related to the most recent 25,000 dental articles on four well-known social networks
Click here to view |
However, Facebook would be useful for all dental researchers and clinicians.[6] On one hand, it has been be used for medical education,[7] as a recruitment tool for adolescent health research,[8] cultural competence education for health professionals,[9] and discussing orthognathic surgery outcome,[10] dental hygiene programs,[11] etc. On the other hand, despite several advantages, over-use of Facebook may cause mental disorder.[12],[13]
Nevertheless, Facebook can be used as a rapid and effective scholarly tool for the public dissemination of dental research findings, providing high visibility to a great number of persons. Facebook allows users to chat; hence, researcher and clinicians can directly interact with their experts and target audiences.
As a final point, growing importance of social medias for dentists has been discussed widely.[14],[15],[16] Yet, the result of this survey and previous reports[3],[4],[5] showed they were not common in dental science. This inattention may be due to a lack of knowledge and attitude toward e-professionalism.[16],[17] Hence, dental researchers, clinicians, and journal editors must go beyond the boundaries of traditional professionalism paradigms and pay more attention to new and emerging concepts, for example, social medias.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mrs. Stacy Konkiel from Altmetric LLP (London, UK) for her valuable assistance.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Kolahi J. Altmetrics: A new emerging issue for dental research scientists. Dent Hypotheses 2015;6:1.  [Full text] |
| 2. | |
| 3. | Kolahi J, Khazaei S. Altmetric: Top 50 dental articles in 2014. BDJ 2016;220:569-74. |
| 4. | Kolahi J, Iranmanesh P, Khazaei S. Altmetric analysis of 2015 dental literature: A cross sectional survey. BDJ 2017;222:695-9. |
| 5. | Kolahi J. Dental research output in twittersphere. Dent Hypotheses 2017;8:1. [Full text] |
| 6. | Ashammakhi N. Dissemination of information: From the stone age to the social media of Facebook. J Craniofac Surg 2017;28:1645-6. |
| 7. | Pander T, Pinilla S, Dimitriadis K, Fischer MR. The use of Facebook in medical education − A literature review. GMS Z Med Ausbild 2014;31:Doc 33. |
| 8. | Amon KL, Campbell AJ, Hawke C, Steinbeck K. Facebook as a recruitment tool for adolescent health research: A systematic review. Acad Pediatr 2014;14:439-47.e4. |
| 9. | Chang L-C., Guo JL, Lin H-L. Cultural competence education for health professionals from pre-graduation to licensure delivered using Facebook: Twelve-month follow-up on a randomized control trial. Nurse Educ Today 2017;59:94-100. |
| 10. | Larsen MK, Thygesen TH. Orthognathic surgery: Outcome in a Facebook group. J Craniofac Surg 2016;27:350-5. |
| 11. | Henry RK, Pieren JA. The use of social media in dental hygiene programs: A survey of program directors. J Dent Hyg 2014;88:243-9. |
| 12. | Østergaard SD. Taking Facebook at face value: Why the use of social media may cause mental disorder. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2017;136:439-40. |
| 13. | Casale S, Fioravanti G. Why narcissists are at risk for developing Facebook addiction: The need to be admired and the need to belong. Addict Behav 2018;76:312-8. |
| 14. | |
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| 16. | Neville P, Waylen A. Social media and dentistry: Some reflections on e-professionalism. BDJ 2015;218:475-8. |
| 17. | Kaczmarczyk JM, Chuang A, Dugoff L, Abbott JF, Cullimore AJ, Dalrymple J et al. e-Professionalism: A new frontier in medical education. Teach Learn Med 2013;25:165-70. |
[Figure 1], [Figure 2]
[Table 1]
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