Using the social media platform Twitter, this study explores public reference to “scientific method(s)” in tweets specifically pertaining to COVID-19 posted between January and June 2020. The study focuses on three research questions: When did reference to scientific methods peak, which aspects of nature of science (NOS) do these tweets address, and the extent to which Twitter users’ sentiments provide useful information about their attitudes towards the scientific method. COVID-19 tweets were mined and queried using “scientific method(s)” as a keyword. A content analysis using the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to NOS and a non-computational sentiment analysis were conducted on the obtained data set. The findings revealed that tweets using science method(s) peaked most during the months of April and May, as more information was being communicated about promising treatments and vaccine development. Most tweets were assigned multiple FRA categories. The sentiment analysis revealed that attitude towards the scientific method was predominantly supportive. Discussion of three events that were observed in clusters of tweets provided additional context. The paper concludes by noting the methodological affordances and limitations of applying the FRA for identifying NOS-related content in Twitter environments and underscoring the potential of targeted NOS messaging in promoting informed discussions about NOS in the public sphere.

本研究使用社交媒体平台 Twitter，探讨了 2020 年 1 月至 6 月期间发布的专门与 COVID-19 相关的推文中对“科学方法”的公开引用。该研究侧重于三个研究问题： 科学方法的引用何时达到峰值，这些推文解决了科学性质 (NOS) 的哪些方面，以及 Twitter 用户的情绪在多大程度上提供了有关他们对科学方法的态度的有用信息。使用“科学方法”作为关键字挖掘和查询 COVID-19 推文。使用家庭相似性方法 (FRA) 对 NOS 进行内容分析和对获得的数据集进行非计算情感分析。调查结果显示，使用科学方法的推文在 4 月和 5 月达到顶峰，随着有关有希望的治疗方法和疫苗开发的更多信息得到传播。大多数推文被分配了多个 FRA 类别。情绪分析表明，对科学方法的态度主要是支持性的。对推文集群中观察到的三个事件的讨论提供了额外的背景。本文最后指出了应用 FRA 在 Twitter 环境中识别 NOS 相关内容的方法论可供性和局限性，并强调了有针对性的 NOS 消息传递在促进公共领域关于 NOS 的知情讨论方面的潜力。对推文集群中观察到的三个事件的讨论提供了额外的背景。本文最后指出了应用 FRA 在 Twitter 环境中识别 NOS 相关内容的方法论可供性和局限性，并强调了有针对性的 NOS 消息传递在促进公共领域关于 NOS 的知情讨论方面的潜力。对推文集群中观察到的三个事件的讨论提供了额外的背景。本文最后指出了应用 FRA 在 Twitter 环境中识别 NOS 相关内容的方法论可供性和局限性，并强调了有针对性的 NOS 消息传递在促进公共领域关于 NOS 的知情讨论方面的潜力。