Learn how UCSF Profiles, the campus reseach networking system, gets used on and off campus

1. Research Networking Usage at a Large Biomedical Institution
Anirvan Chatterjee, Katja Reuter, PhD, John Daigre, Eric Meeks, Katherine Nelson, Cynthia
Piontkowski, Rachael Sak, RN, MPH, Brian Turner, MBA, Leslie Yuan, MPH, Maninder Kahlon, PhD
Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of California, San Francisco
Introduction
Biomedical institutions have widely deployed
institutional expertise discovery and
researcher networking systems, including
VIVO, Harvard Catalyst Profiles, and SciVal
Experts. Institutions have invested in
networking systems drawn by the promise of
enabling collaboration, matchmaking and
other key needs for accelerating translational
research—but evidence is limited on the
extent of usage of these tools and their
perceived value in the research community.
UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Science
Institute (CTSI) invested not only in early
deployment of the tool but also in a multi-
pronged approach to user-focused design,
promotion, and analytics. Twenty-six months
after launch, UCSF Profiles, UCSF’s research
networking system is receiving over 2,000
visits per day, driven in large part by search
engine optimization and strategic linking
initiatives with major campus web properties.
Methods & Tools
The UCSF Profiles team’s usage analysis is
based primarily on the extensive use of
Google Analytics, including the use of custom
events and traffic segmentation. This has
been supplemented with several user input
mechanisms, including an on-site survey
shown to all users.
This work was supported by the National
Center for Advancing Translational Sciences,
National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-
CTSI Grant Number UL1 TR000004. Its
contents are solely the responsibility of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the
official views of the NIH.
Clinical and Translational Science Institute / CTSI
Accelerating Research to Improve Health
SFUC
Who’s using the system?
• UCSF Profiles is used heavily by both internal
and external audiences.
• On-site survey data shows that UCSF
audiences include researchers, administrators,
support staff, and external audiences include
researchers, reviewers, doctors, and patients.
How do users find it?
• UCSF Profiles users are most likely to arrive
by searching Google for a researcher’s name
• In January 2013…
• Search engines drove 68% of visits on
campus, and 74% outside
• Links from UCSF websites drove 26% of
visits on campus, and 10% outside
What do they look at?
• Virtually all users look at individual researcher
profiles, driven in large part by search engines.
• However, users who land on the home page
are more likely to make heavier use of the site.
• In January 2013…
• 96% of all visits hit a profile pages
• 5% of all visits hit the home page
Why use the system?
An on-site survey offers insights into how users
make use of UCSF Profiles. Examples:
• “Great resource for finding potential research"
collaborators and for PhD dissertation committees”
• “I am hoping that it just helped me find a mentor”
• “It has helped find new nursing research problems”
• “It is wonderful to find current publications…for our"
annual report and for some grant applications.”
• “I am writing a letter in support of the faculty member "
whose profile I just consulted.”
• “Gives me a profile of a potential contributor to a book”
• “Helps my company serve the UCSF community better”
• “Put together a list of potential guest lecturers”
• “Review the background and experience of an author”
• “For contacting expert reviewers”
We track both overall traffic, as well as “power
user” traffic from our core targeted audience (on-
campus users who spend 2+ minutes per visit).
Landing page
Visits per Day"
January 2013
Traffic %
Avg. pages
per visit
Home page
74
4%
5.3
…via search engines
33
2%
4.9
…via other sources
41
2%
5.3
Profile page
1,921
93%
1.5
…via search engines
1,458
70%
1.4
…via other sources
464
22%
1.7
Traffic over time
What is UCSF Profiles?
research areas
related people
contact information
profile page
for every
researcher
on campus
publications,
grants, etc.
0
250
500
750
1,000
1,250
1,500
1,750
2,000
2,250
Daily visits from all sources
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Daily 2+ minute visits from UCSF
Google search, 1419
Bing, Yahoo, and other
search engines, 67
UCSF.edu internal
search engine, 49
UCSF.edu online
directory, 76
UCSF.edu news stories, 29
Other UCSF websites, 171
Other non-UCSF
websites, 48
Direct / Unknown / Email /
Private browsing, 214
Visits Per Day by Source (January 2013)
Core UCSF campus,
282
San Francisco, outside
core UCSF campus, 287
California, outside of
UCSF, 440
USA, outside of
California, 667
World, outside of USA,
397
Visits per Day By Location (January 2013)