Methods has recently introduced a new submission requirement on page 1 of the ScholarOne submissions website, called a “Tweetable abstract”. This box should ideally contain the article’s novelty and/or main finding in less than 120 characters (note that’s 120 characters, not words, which is a mistake a few authors have made so far!).
If the article is accepted, this text will then be used to let our Twitter followers know when it’s available. For those who don’t use Twitter, it allows users to post text of up to 140 characters at any one time, for their followers and anyone else on Twitter to see (we ask for a maximum of 120 characters so that we can add a link to the article as well).
We currently have over 1,600 Twitter followers, most of whom are ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and anyone interested in news from MEE. At the moment we tweet article titles, which are sometimes modified, but we think it will more interesting if the author conceisly states the key message in their own words. A question can also make an eye-catching tweet, don’t you think? You can have a look at Method’s Twitter feed for past examples of tweets.
The text provided will not be used automatically, we’ll check it, and if it represents the article well, then we’ll post it on twitter along with a link to the abstract. Some of our 1,600 followers will then see it and hopefully click on the link to read the article! Social media platforms are great marketing tools, and so the author will be helping us to advertise their article.
If you’re new to Twitter or interested in joining, why not take the Twitter tour? And remember to follow MEE, and mention MEE in any relevant tweets by typing our username: @MethodsEcolEvol.
Related:
Methods Blog 
Fantastic tool.