Bluesky has overtaken its flailing rival X in hosting posts related to new academic research, indicating the platform is fast becoming the go-to place for scholars to share their work.
Analysis by experts at Digital Science found that while X still has a much larger volume of research posts overall, Bluesky hosted more posts linked to work published in 2025 for the first time in March.
Many have proclaimed Academic Twitter “dead” after the takeover of the social media site by Elon Musk, with a clear alternative for researchers struggling to emerge.
Mike Taylor, head of Data Insights at Digital Science, said the scholarly community on X has been incredibly important but “it looks like the days of X’s dominance are over”.
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While it remains an important venue to discuss and share academic research, Taylor told Times Higher Education that those who are leaving X have largely settled on Bluesky as an alternative – instead of Meta-owned Threads or Mastodon.
“In my opinion, having a ‘preferred venue’ is a very good thing – I have worried that we’d see a fragmentation, with small communities trying to establish themselves on different platforms.
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“Bluesky appears to have more original content than X – but the contrary position to this is that people who are creating content on X have potentially bigger audiences.”
Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, said that because researchers have limited time, it was beneficial to have a go-to platform for interactions.
“That used to be Twitter but now Bluesky is increasingly serving that role,” he said.
“I suspect that Bluesky will continue to grow as a gathering place for researchers. There are strong network effects and right now Bluesky seems to be benefiting from a virtuous cycle of positive feedback.”
But Claes de Vreese, professor of artificial intelligence and society at the University of Amsterdam, said fragmentation across X’s rivals will continue and that Bluesky was not yet the “central space” for researchers.
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However, he agreed that one thing was certain – “for most scholars, X is history”.
“The platform is no longer interesting for exchanges about science and research. And the platform has become a weaponised space that is entangled in the new Musk–Trump administration.
“On today’s X, #AcademicTwitter is dead. And most scholars in the world do not want to be active on what the platform has become.”
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Digital Science found that the posts linked to new research on Bluesky and X are of a similar quality, and that Bluesky seems to have a higher proportion of original posts.
Andy Tseng, director of information technology and digital strategy at the Whitehead Institute, warned that large-scale migration within the research community is a slow process as institutional communications, professional networks and long-established habits contribute to the inertia of existing platforms.
“Until Bluesky or another alternative reaches critical mass across all disciplines and professional networks, X will continue to play a role, albeit a diminishing one.
“The tipping point will come when the perceived benefits of migrating fully to Bluesky outweigh the practical challenges of maintaining dual engagement across platforms.”
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