Presentation given by Michael Ladisch, Bibliometrics Librarian at UCD Library, at the AISHE Seminar, May 6, 2015, at Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland.
3. Alt-metrics
Michael Ladisch, UCD Library
May 2015
"Altmetrics are measures of scholarly
impact mined from activity in online tools
and environments.”
Jason Priem, author of “Altmetrics: a manifesto”
Benefits:
• A more nuanced understanding of impact, showing us which
scholarly products are read, discussed, saved and recommended
as well as cited.
• Often more timely data, showing evidence of impact in days
instead of years.
• A window on the impact of web-native scholarly products like
datasets, software, blog posts, videos and more.
• Indications of impacts on diverse audiences including scholars but
also practitioners, clinicians, educators and the general public.
H. Piwowar, Bull. Assoc. Inform. Sci. Technol., 39 (2013) 4
8. In general, altmetrics numbers…
X Don’t represent the quality of
research.
Don’t indicate the quality of
individual researchers.
Don’t tell the whole story –
always look for qualitative
data as well
X
X
Michael Ladisch, UCD Library
May 2015
Source: altmetric.com
9. Caveats
• Lack of standards
• Open to manipulation and gaming
• Use of online tools my differ by individual researcher, discipline,
over time
• Popularity (attention) does not always equal quality of research
• Was the spike in hits a one-time, short-attention event?
• Data sources come and go (think MySpace, Connotea)
• Services started as free, open-source, open-access tools, often
switched to charging fees
Michael Ladisch, UCD Library
May 2015
14. Altmetric for Institutions
Michael Ladisch, UCD Library
May 2015
College of Business & Law 52
College of Engineering and Architecture 123
College of Health Sciences 996
College of Human Sciences 224
College of Science 1,102
17. Altmetric for Institutions
Michael Ladisch, UCD Library
May 2015
AfI at UCD
• Subscription purchased by UCD Research
• DOIs provided and uploaded by UCD Research
• IP address access
UCD Research
• Leading implementation
• Maintaining AfI profile
• Reporting on institutional and school level
UCD Library
• Training and support for research administrators
• Training and support for individual researcher
• Providing online information (LibGuide)
28. Why should I use social media for my
research?
• Global connectedness
• Engage directly with your
audiences
• Boosts your exposure
• You receive real feedback
• Creating and sharing content
• Establish credibility
• Everybody’s doing it
• Some of the services are harvested
by altemetrics tools!
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
29. Social Networks for Researchers
Some tips:
• Maintain your profiles
• Be consistent
• Use your full name
• Cross-link your different profiles
• Don’t be a “Troll”
• Be always polite
• Add copyright statement for your work and respect
other’s
• Don’t overshare
In Internet slang, troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/)
is a person who sows discord on the
Internet by starting arguments or
upsetting people,[1] by posting
inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-
topic messages in an online
community (such as a forum, chat
room, or blog),
either accidentally[3][4] or with the
deliberate intent of provoking readers
into an emotional response[5]or of
otherwise disrupting normal on-topic
discussion.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
30. Social Networks for Researchers
Before signing up:
• Be aware that your profile is public
• Read the small print
• Who owns the data?
• Third party services can close down;
they can be sold
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
31. Social Networks for Researchers
http://tosdr.org
“I have read and
agree to the Terms”
is the biggest lie on
the web.
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
35. Fact sheet:
• Started in 2008
• Membership is free
• 18.8 million members (March 2015)
• More than 5.3 million papers
• 15.7 million unique visitors per month
• 3,651 members from UCD
Academia.edu
http://www.academia.edu/
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
38. Fact sheet:
• Started in 2008
• Membership is free
• 5+ million members (March 2015)
• More than 14 million full text papers
(67 million publications)
• More than 16,700 job listings
• 3,376 members from UCD
ResearchGate
http://www.researchgate.net/
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
40. Fact sheet:
• Started in 2003
• Membership is free
• 300 million members (June 2014)
• Formation of interest groups (1.3 million
groups)
• Professional networking
• Job listings, business opportunities
• 3,251 members from UCD
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
42. https://twitter.com/
• Tweet about new publications
• Get feedback on ideas
• Great for reaching external audiences
• Tweet from conferences
• Remember…all tweets are public!
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
46. https://twitter.com/
Lists of academic tweeters by LSE (by discipline):
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/
09/02/academic-tweeters-your-suggestions-in-full/
UCD Teaching & Learning – 10 Days of Twitter
https://ucd10dot.wordpress.com/
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
50. PhD students start
blogging to put
their thoughts out
there – bounce
ideas off others and
invite comments to
further enhance
their journey
towards their
finished
dissertations.
Blogs
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
51. In addition to individuals, there are blogs from respected journals
and academic institutions ….
http://blogs.bmj.com/
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
52. In addition to individuals, there are blogs from respected journals
and academic institutions ….
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/ /
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
53. Looking for blogs of interest?
http://researchblogging.com/
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015
62. Swan, A. (2010) The Open Access citation advantage: Studies and results to date. Technical
Report, School of Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton
Research Repository UCD
Michael Ladisch
UCD Library, May 2015