Presence and impact of Andean universities in online social networks

Introduction. This research study examines the presence and impact of the 165 universities that are part of the four Andean countries (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia) on the most important online research networks (Researchgate.net and Academia.edu), in order to establish the degree of use and penetration of these new tools that enable scientific communication, collaboration and interaction, and incorporate alternative scientific reputation evaluation systems that expand the traditional the visible and invisible colleges of s cience. Method. The study is based on quantitative and qualitative research techniques and social netw orks analysis (SNA). Results. The presence and impact of the Andean universities in the online res earch networks is heterogeneous, but generally emerging and growing, and still divergent in terms of reputation in comparison to the results achieved in other international university rankings of long-standing tradition. Discussion and conclusions. The online research networks and their techno-socia l tools (Web 2.0 and 3.0) are convergent digital ecosystems of software services, repositories and open and networked communication platforms that allow researchers: to share their academic and professional profile within a specific area of knowledge dissemination a nd exchange; to create lists of users related within one or more scientific disciplines in order to be able to monitor them, and share information contacts, projects, documents, notes, collaboration s and research studies with them; to create scientific networks; to access and download referen ces and scientific works available online; and to