Todd Carpenter presentation at the O'Reily Tools of Change conference TOCCON in New York, NY.

1. Alternative Metrics
How the future of assessment can
improve discovery and delivery of
content
Todd Carpenter, Executive Director, NISO
Tools of Change Conference, New York, NY
February 12, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 13

2. @TAC_NISO Twitter Highlights
• So excited to present on #altmetrics today during #tocfbf at #fbf12
• Again, I’m pre-tweeting my presentation. Slides to come! #tocfbf #fbf12
• #NISO = 1/3 Publishers, 1/3 Libraries, 1/3 automation suppliers. Communities converge to develop
standards #tocfbf #fbf12
• Standards are everywhere in book publishing, we just don’t notice them anymore. #tocfbf #fbf12
• In 1955 Eugene Garfield published “Citation Indexes for Science” in Science http://bit.ly/xfylwh #tocfbf
#fbf12
• Quote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants." Sir Isaac Newton
#tocfbf
#fbf12
• Sounds like beginning of a joke: 2 guys at Stanford, they wrote this paper, then started a company in a
garage ... #tocfbf #fbf12
• Citations are awesome, aren’t they? A perfect solution to all the world’s problems, no? #tocfbf #fbf12
• Citations aren’t always a measure of quality. They are also a very lagging indicator of impact #tocfbf
#fbf12
• #altmetrics a suite of assessment criteria & measures being developed to assess importance of a
particular scholarly output #tocfbf #fbf12
• #altmetrics examples: usage analysis, metrics of non-traditional content, observational or behavioral
analysis, social media #tocfbf #fbf12
• How 1 can apply #altmetrics Sell related content, spot trends in near-real-time, ID new fields or new
services, marketing #tocfbf #fbf12
• Real world #altmetrics examples: http://bit.ly/OzGnGt www.tynt.com http://bit.ly/TcNIh0 http://bit.ly/
PknZb4 #tocfbf #fbf12
• Issues needing consensus regarding #altmetrics - Authorship, provenance, definitions of components,
privacy, openness #tocfbf #fbf12
Tuesday, February 12, 13

3. About
• Non-profit industry trade association accredited
by ANSI with 150+ members
• Mission of developing and maintaining technical
standards related to information,
documentation, discovery and distribution of
published materials and media
• Volunteer driven organization: 400+ spread out
across the world
• Responsible for standards like ISSN, DOI, Dublin
Core metadata, DAISY digital talking books,
OpenURL, MARC records, and ISBN (indirectly)
Tuesday, February 12, 13

4. Standards are familiar, even if you don’t notice
Image: DanTaylor Image: : Joel Washing
Tuesday, February 12, 13

5. Who is reading published content?
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6. Who is reading published content?
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7. We stand on the
shoulders of giants...
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8. The Mighty Citation
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9. Impact factor
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10. Thomson-Reuters
IMPACT FACTOR
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11. Two Stanford Students
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12. They wrote a paper
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13. They started a company in
someone’s garage
Photo: AP
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14. Tuesday, February 12, 13

15. A simple conclusion
can be drawn
Citations are awesome, aren’t they?
A perfect solution to all the world’s
problems, no?
Tuesday, February 12, 13

16. Back to Sir Isaac Newton
“What Des-Cartes did was a
good step.You have added
much several ways, &
especially in taking ye
colours of thin plates into
philosophical consideration. If
I have seen further it is by
standing on ye shoulders of
Giants."
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17. Caveat emptor
Citations
aren’t
always what
we think
they are
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18. Another problem with citations
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19. So where to from here?
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20. Define Altmetrics,
Please
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21. Usage Based Metrics
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22. Citation of non-traditional content
Citations to new
forms of
communciation
aren’t as simple
as one might
think.
Define a use of
this?
Image: Domenico, Caron, Davis, et al.
Tuesday, February 12, 13

23. Clickstream Analysis
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24. Social Media Metrics
Image: Danny Brown, The State of Social Media Marketing 2012
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25. Behavioral Metrics
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26. Multivariate analysis
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27. OK, it’s important, but
what does it mean for
MY BUSINESS
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28. Have you bought
something from
Amazon?
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29. Tuesday, February 12, 13

30. Did you buy
something that
“other people bought”?
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31. Tuesday, February 12, 13

32. Tuesday, February 12, 13

33. $$$$ One Million Dollars $$$$
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34. o t e d
N nt
m e $$$$
l e
$$$$ One Million Dollars
p
I m
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35. Netflix Recommendations: Beyond the 5 stars
Everything is a Recommendation
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36. “All I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead”
What can Netflix
glean from:
Several billion item ratings
Item popularity - along many axis
Stream plays each - along many axis
Millions of “queue” additions daily
Rich item metadata
User interface interactions
Social data
External data
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37. Presenting
movies is not
the only game
to play with
these data
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38. Innovation often takes
place at the
intersection of different
fields
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39. Image: http://www.crispian.net/CrispiansScienceMap.html
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40. Mapping the World of Science
Clickstream data yields high-
resolution maps of science
Johan Bollen, Herbert Van de Sompel, et al.
PLoS One, February 2009
Tuesday, February 12, 13

41. Mapping the World of Science
Clickstream data yields high-
resolution maps of science
Johan Bollen, Herbert Van de Sompel, et al.
PLoS One, February 2009
Tuesday, February 12, 13

42. So what else can I do?
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43. Realtime Trend Spotting
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44. Improve products and
customer services
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45. Editorial applications
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46. Author services
(“How is my book doing?”)
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47. Marketing applications
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48. Is anyone really doing
any of this?
(Beyond Amazon, Google &
Netflix?)
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49. Tuesday, February 12, 13

50. 70%
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51. Tuesday, February 12, 13

52. Tuesday, February 12, 13

53. Tuesday, February 12, 13

54. Issues we face with
alternative metrics
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55. Image: Flickr user karindalziel
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56. Authorship
-----
Disambiguation
Contributor Roles
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57. Basic Definitions
Needed
(So we are all talking
about the same thing)
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58. More open exchange of
component data
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59. All you need is....
Large Amounts of Data
Good Analysts
Implementation Strategy
Creativity
Standards
(we can only do so much)
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60. One Very Last Thing…
Image from Will Lion: http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2646213692/
Tuesday, February 12, 13

61. Thank you!
Todd Carpenter, Executive Director
tcarpenter@niso.org
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 302
Baltimore, MD 21211 USA
+1 (301) 654-2512
www.niso.org
Tuesday, February 12, 13