How will the proliferation of altmetrics (ALMs) change our understanding of user behavior in scholarly publishing?

1. Metrics:
The New Black?
Kristen Fisher Ratan
NFAIS 2012

2. The web is getting personal

6. Can Web Metrics Indicate
Research Impact?

7. Metrics:
The New Black?
Kristen Fisher Ratan
NFAIS 2012

8. Research Dissemination
IS
Research Impact

9. Dissemination creates indicators
of impact
Publication Dissemination
Article Level • Citations
• Web usage
Metrics (ALMs) • Star Ratings
• Social bookmarking
• Community rating
• Media/blog coverage
• Commenting activity
• and more…

13. ALMs: Two Traditional Use Cases
Author Researcher/Writer/Journalist
Self-Metrics Research & Discovery
Measure the impact and reach of Gauge value of any article with
their work post-publication peer review
Benchmark article performance Conduct custom searches that
against others account for research impact
Collect relevant articles and
Evaluate publication decisions to
organize based upon array of
maximize the impact of their work
criteria
Gain insight into article’s impact
Understand readership
within context of related research
Communicate impact of research to
Analyze trends/behaviors across a
employers, funders, potential
database of academic literature
collaborators
The Third?
Meta-analysis using large
datasets of ALMs

14. Beyond the Article

15. Usage isn’t always indicative
1595 Tweets

17. Inside the Article

18. Powerpoint download feature inadvertently
tracked sub-article usage

19. New feature may be able to
track cut/paste activities

20. 90%

21. To Measure is to Know

22. Let’s get tracking
• Cut/paste
• Figures opened, downloaded
• Links clicked
• Time spent on article page
• Supplemental info viewed
• Authors’ info viewed
• Pathways that info travels
• ALMs viewed and used
To understand true use of
context

23. What Might Data Drive?
• Tenure and promotion
• Grants
• Reputation
• Discovery
• Prioritization
$ Attention:
the new currency

24. Caveats and concerns
• Missed citation data
• Data sources aren’t reliable
• Digital addresses change
• Usage doesn’t mean useful
• Deliberate gaming
• Context

25. Next: Context-Mining

27. Thank You!
Kristen Fisher Ratan
kratan@plos.org