Altmetrics in the Academy - Implementing strategies in the library for better academic engagement, dissemination and measurement Workshop abstract: Altmetrics are increasingly gaining support and interest as an alternative way of disseminating and measuring scholarly output. Championed by early career researchers, librarians and information professionals, Altmetrics are to research as MOOCs are to learning. Like MOOCs most still do not understand their potential or how they could fit with or replace existing modes of delivery and assessment. The first half of the workshop will help delegates gain an understanding of what Altmetrics are and how they can fit within academic library services. The second half of the session will deliver case studies, tools and techniques to help LIS professionals encourage better usage of Altmetrics. 10:00: What do you want from the day? What are your experiences of Altmetrics 10.40am: Altmetrics: an overview or Altmetrics and the day/where are we now? A history, roadmap, how it fits in 11 am: Altmetrics within institutions: data, IR integration/other tools/library catalogue integration what data is there? coverage of articles/datasets/other research outputs, mendeley demographic data case studies of uses examples of IR integration/motivations primo/summon/other ones.. altmetric for institutions - integration with existing platforms free explorer (and we’ll explore the data using this later) 11.30 Break 12.00pm Altmetrics in the Academy - getting academics and librarians on board 12.40 Brainstorming session: Value in Altmetrics: what questions do people have around this? what are their biggest concerns? 13.00 Lunch 2 pm: Getting familiar with the tools - practical session experimenting with the Altmetric explorer - half an hour (set tasks - eg create a list, pull out the most interesting mentions) Good practice, guidelines, tips 2:45pm: At the coal face - experiences of a researcher using Altmetrics in practice 3.30pm: Break 3.45 pm: Getting mobile, how using mobile apps can help you engage more with Altmetrics 4.05 pm What’s on the horizon? What does the future for scholarly dissemination and impact. 4.40 wrap up and questions

1. Altmetrics
in the
Academy
Implementing strategies in the library for better academic
engagement, dissemination and measurement

2. Who we are part 1

3. 10.00 Welcome and introductions
10.10 What do you want from the day? What are your experiences of
Altmetrics?
10:30 An overview of Altmetrics - what, why, where?
11.30 Break
12.00 Altmetrics in the Academy - getting academics and librarians
on board
12.40 Brainstorming session: Value in altmetrics: what questions do
people have around this? what are their biggest concerns?
1.00 Lunch

4. Do you use any of these?

5. And these?

6. Do you recognise these?

7. An overview of Altmetrics
- what, why where?

8. The dissemination and communication
of research is changing
Presentations and seminars
Funding and ethics applications
Academic books
Journal articles and posters
Term papers and essays
Meetings and conferences
Correspondence
Open access
Supplementary data
Online reference managers
Press
Post-publication peer-review
Social media
Blogs

9. Traditional metrics struggle to
reflect this
- Slow to accrue
- Focus mostly on published articles
Published
June 2014:
Starting to impact the behaviour of academics

10. Development of altmetrics
● to complement, not replace traditional metrics
● help people understand how research is being received and used,
and by who
● not intended as an indicator of quality
● can help provide further evidence of engagement and ‘societal
impact’
● give credit for research outputs other than articles

11. So, what are they?

12. And who provides them?

13. Altmetrics at Altmetric
● data quality and curation
● valid, relevant sources
● intuitive user interface
● customer support
● community engagement

14. Sources of attention

15. Policy documents
● AWMF - Association of Scientific Medical Societies
● European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
● Food and Agriculture Organization
● GOV.UK - Policy papers, Research & Analysis
● Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
● International Monetary Fund (IMF)
● Mental Health Foundation (UK) - NEW
● NICE Evidence
● UNESCO
● World Health Organization (WHO)
More being added each week…

16. Aggregating attention
Follow a list of sources
(manual curation)
Search for links to papers
(automated collection)
Collate attention
(disambiguation)
Display data in
“Altmetric details pages”
Reporting Collecting

17. Digging in to the data

18. Demographics
Twitter data from
bio’s
Mendeley data based
on who has saved
the article to their
library - anonymised

19. The Altmetric score and donut
● developed to give an at-a-glance summary of the attention work has received
● not an indicator of quality of the research!
● useful when looking at data for lots of articles at once

20. Context

21. Implementations

22. Publisher uses

23. And funders...

24. Librarian access
● Free Altmetric Explorer accounts
● Search for data on any article, from any publisher
● Share with researchers or admins

25. “Can I see the data for authors and
work just from my institution?”

26. Altmetric for Institutions

27. Explore your institution

28. Reporting
- save search filters
- set up automated email alerts
- export to excel, or reports on individual articles
- API output
- set up direct links into other systems

29. Who can use the data?

30. Institutional repositories
- free donut badge embeds
- just 2 lines of code: api.altmetric.com
- helps encourage deposits
- collates attention from all versions
- let us know your domain!
info@altmetric.com

32. Discovery platforms
Free primo plugin available
In discussion with ProQuest re: Summon

33. Researchers
altmetric.it

34. Details pages alerts

35. Impact Story

36. New tools: Kudos

37. Researcher feedback

39. They’re still fairly new...
- ongoing review, HEFCE
- project to create standards, NISO
- looking towards Horizon 2020 and next RAE in
Australia

40. Concerns about gaming and
misinterpretation
● part of the reason that we make sure all of our
data is auditable
● and don’t show things like Facebook likes
● systems in place to flag up suspect activity
● beware siloed usage data

41. But at the end of the day...

42. Ways to keep up to date
- ImpactStory newsletter
- Altmetric blog
- Plum analytics blog
- Regular webinars
- Follow #altmetrics hashtag on Twitter

43. Image CC BY Cheryl Foong http://bit.ly/1slDTUW

44. Altmetrics:
A new role for library and information professionals
Image CC BY mkhmarketing http://bit.ly/1qwdZHC

45. Who we are part 2

46. It’s not just Altmetrics that’s hot
MOOCs
Open Access
Impact
Big Data

47. The research process
Have an
idea
Search for
research
Filter and
review the
research
Measure
and
discuss the
research
Publish and
disseminate
the research

48. The research process and you
Have an
idea
Search for
research
Filter and
review the
research
Measure
and
discuss the
research
Publish and
disseminate
the research
LIS Professionals host,
catalogue and search
published research
LIS Professionals carry out
systematic and literature
reviews from search results
LIS Professionals
experts in
measurement,
bibliometrics,
work in neutral role
LIS Professionals
experts in publishing
and communication.
OA, Social Media,
blogging

49. Where the LIS professional fits in
Appraising
Impartial
Flexible
Helpful
Networked
Centrally based

50. Every researcher is different
An early career researcher who uses a social media
every day, mostly for their personal life wants to use
social media and altmetrics within their professional
setting. They have an idea of the basics, but are also
concerned that their line manager who is an older,
established academic might perceive the use of such
tools as not constituting as work.
How do you resolve that?

51. ● Find evidence which peers are using altmetrics
● Show them tools and shortcuts that highlight this is real work with
real outputs - Tweetdeck, IFTTT, altmetric bookmarklet
● Those who have established altmetrics companies are often early
career researchers wanting to get more from their work.
● They may have datasets or other outputs they wish to share
● It could have the offset of bringing the senior academic on board
● Explain it can be a way to build social ties - with publishers,
potential collaborators, fund holders, bloggers and journalists

52. Every researcher is different
A senior academic asks the question; ‘is Altmetrics a
good use of my time?’
They a couple of decades into their career, possibly a
professor and have several published papers in a high
impact, peer-review journals. They are thinking about
engaging with social media and Altmetrics but are not
sure whether it would actually benefit their career at this
stage.
How do you resolve that?

53. ● Academics like to debate their areas of expertise - explain that on
social media there is a conversation taking place right now about
their research with some of their peers involved
● Show evidence that altmetrics are a good indicator of future
research and hot topics
● Breath life into old research - show how altmetrics gives them new
and interesting metrics on their existing papers - where globally a
paper is being talked about or saved
● Explain how this can fit in with the growing impact agenda

54. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation

55. ''All mankind is divided into three classes:
Those that are immovable, those that are
movable, and those that move''.
Benjamin Franklin

56. Getting academics to the waterhole
Images CC BY Whatleydude http://bit.ly/1wPc0my Kyknoord http://bit.ly/1wgTLZ8

57. #Understand
● Their way of working -
long periods doing the same thing
● Their concerns
Pressure to publish research
● Their fears
May not be used to Social Media or
technology for that matter
● How busy they are
● What they can get out of
Altmetrics
and what you can do to help them
Image CC BY Glen Edelson
http://bit.ly/1o3tFb8

58. #Demystify
● Explain that Altmetrics are not
about Justin Bieber’s Tweets to
his Beliebers
● That using tools like Altmetrics,
Mendeley, Twitter and ImpactStory
will show them where their research
is reaching globally
● Help build case studies to
show what is out there
● Show junior researchers and
students that their research and
profile will benefit
Image CC BY Sarah
http://bit.ly/ZyiXxw

59. #Train
Image CC BY Sarah
http://bit.ly/ZyiXxw
● Bite size sessions
● Workshops
● Video tutorials
● Webinars
● Hangouts
Image CC BY Michael Young
http://bit.ly/Zyk2Wh

60. #Champion
● Look to see who on your
campus uses technology
and social media
● Take them for a coffee
● Get them to present a
session on how they use it
Image CC BY edwin.11
http://bit.ly/1ufH2kP

61. #Network
● Seek out natural
allies
Impact and research
support, open access
advocates,
MOOCsters,
library and information
professionals,
technicians,
learning technologists,
communications and
marketing
Image CC BY Bruno Girin
http://bit.ly/1zeQnlc

62. #Practice

63. Social Media/Altmetric Case
study
● Took over Chair of our Communications
and Impact (CIG) group in Feb 2014
● Wanted to get more staff using social
tools to improve research impact and
engagement
● Staff want EVIDENCE
● that it works
Image by: West Midlands Police: https://www.flickr.com/photos/westmidlandspolice/ used via CC BY-SA 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

64. Project!
● Agreed to develop a small group of staff
who were not currently using social
media to promote their research
● Gave training in Twitter
● Regular emails to inform and encourage
● Curated Twitter List to monitor their
activities

65. Results!
● All of them are now tweeting at least once
per fortnight
● All have gained 30+ followers
● Some are much more active, writing own
tweets, MT-ing, etc.
● But! Lots of them just retweet :0(
● But then again, its early days :0)
...Next, I begged, borrowed and stole their
PPTs and Posters...

66. Slideshare!
● ...to do a companion, comparative study
on Slideshare
● Slides of posters and conference PPTs
currently on web pages also uploaded to
SlideShare
● Half tweeted, half not
● Compared views for each
● half of ‘trial’

67. Results!
● All slides/posters have had over 35 views
in 5 months
● 70% have over 100
● Tweeted ones have average of 166
● Non-Tweeted ones have average of 55
views
● So these things work in
● tandem with eachother!
MICHELLE PORUCZNIK ANIMATED GIF
SOURCE: porucz.tumblr.com

68. Brainstorming session
Value in Altmetrics:
What questions do people have around
Altmetrics?
What are their biggest concerns?
What is missing from Altmetrics?
What are you doing already?

69. Lunch

70. Afternoon Agenda
3.30: Break
3.50: Ehsan continued…
4.00: Getting mobile, how using mobile apps can help you engage
more with Altmetrics
4.20: The Altmetric Explorer
4.30: What’s on the horizon? What does the future for scholarly
dissemination and impact?
4.45: Wrap up and questions

71. Getting mobile, how
using mobile apps
can help you engage
more with Altmetrics
Image by David Lytle: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlytle/:, used via CC BY 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
● The working day is busy enough already
● Your mobile device is with you most of the time
● 1 or 2 minutes per day (on a commute?) could reap benefits
● Twitter is an obvious win for the time- pressed, but what else?

72. The Altmetrics Home Screen!
Twitter: tweet links, retweet,
start discussions, promote
yourself and what you do- your
‘brand’
BBC News: a great source of
news stories- if one relates to
your research areas, move
quickly! Tweet it, and your
research papers- make the link
in people’s minds.

73. The Altmetrics Home Screen!
Podcasts: Listen and learn, not
just about other’s research, but
how to talk about it in lay
terms, for a podcast audience
Camera/Photos: You never
know when an opportunity to
get a shot that could be used
with a blog post/podcast will
arise- be ready!

74. The Altmetrics Home Screen!
Blogger: Blog on the go! Dictate
content and add images via
blogging apps, save and publish
later if needs be- get that idea
down!
Hootsuite: post to multiple social
networks in one! Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and more, and
use auto-schedule, to avoid pre-work
‘blackspots’ on social
media

75. The Altmetrics Home Screen!
LinkedIn- post to ‘groups’ for
targeted impact- can post same
things you’d tweet, but with
more characters to play with!
audioBoom! (formerly
audioBoo): record short audio-yourself
or things around you,
and share, embed, etc-podcasting
‘lite’

76. 3 things you can do
1. Find what works for you
2. Be patient and keep trying
3. Look on social and altmetric sites and see
whether they have app versions

77. Altmetric Explorer: Tasks to try
1. Which article published in the Lancet has seen the most attention
in the last week?
2. Find 3 DOIs for articles published by your researchers - and then
search for them in the Explorer
3. How many articles mentioned in the last year and published in the
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology have been mentioned
in a policy document?
http://bit.ly/M0aQmz

78. What’s on the horizon? What does the
future for scholarly dissemination and impact
http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/sep/19/peer-review-research-impact-altmetrics

80. New era for peer review?

81. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedcommons/ (Last Accessed 14/10/2014)

82. http://www.papercritic.com/

84. https://theconversation.com/profiles/tom-stafford-91781/articles

86. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

87. http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies_novella.htm

90. Wrap up and questions

91. Thank you
For more information
@catherinelucy
@andy_tattersall
@beakybeecroft
@ehsanwlv
@altmetric
@scharrlib