Social media is a great opportunity for your academic and research career.

Social media is about great conversations – show your excitement for your research and the research of others and people will respond!

Tips for engagement

• Tag our accounts when you post (@ClimateExtremes on Twitter) – if you tag us, we can retweet/re-share your amazing work!
• Have fun! Congratulate a colleague on a great paper. Post a photo with your colleagues! Share your cat helping you crunch data. It’s okay to have fun!

If you list the Centre in your profile

You must assume that everything you say on your account will be attributed as not just your opinion – but the opinion of everyone involved in the Centre.

Example: You list @ClimateExtremes in your profile on Twitter. You tweet that “The Government is corrupt and should be overturned”. A journalist sees your tweet, looks at your profile, see that you’ve listed “@ClimateExtremes”.

The journalist then writes an article “Research Council Centre calls Government “corrupt””

Yes, it may be your opinion – and you have academic freedom but anything you say on a profile attributed to the Centre reflects on all of us.

Use common sense – this isn’t about shutting down debate, but if you list the Centre in your profile – stop before your post and think “would it be okay if this post was attributed to the Centre as a whole?”

If you engage in discussion, be polite, be respectful and stick to the facts.

If you don’t list the Centre in your profile

You have academic freedom – and you should be able to engage in robust debates.

If you engage in political debate or discussion outside of your work with the Centre – that’s your right, we just ask that you be careful about blurring those two worlds.

If unsure – keep two accounts – a professional one and a personal one.