altmetrics 2015 jan

Altmetrics: the movement, the tools, and the implications
Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS Andrea H. Denton, MILS
January 27, 2015

Defining altmetrics J. Priem (@jasonpriem), I like the term
#articlelevelmetrics, but it fails to imply *diversity* of measures. Lately, Im liking altmetrics., 4:28 AM - 29 Sep 10, Tweet
the creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for analyzing, and informing scholarship.
http://altmetrics.org/about/

Awareness, not promotion!

Why should you care?
Br J Sports Med doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-092417

Before altmetrics
Traditional products and measures of academic success
Publications
Conference presentations/posters
Committee work
Number of times your work was cited
Impact Factor and journal rank
H-index

From metrics to altmetrics
Measures
Traditional
Research Products
Trad
itio
nal
- Article - Chapter - Books
Times Cited Impact Factor + Rank
H-index

Measures
Traditional New
Research Products
Trad
itio
nal
Times Cited Impact Factor +
Rank H-index
Page Views Downloads

The definition of scholarly output is changing
NSF Publications broadened to Products of Research As of Jan 2013 citable and accessible including but not limited to publications, data sets, software, patents, and copyrights."

Measures
Traditional New
Research Products
Tr
adit
ion
al
Times Cited Impact Factor +
Rank H-index
Page Views
N
ew
- Datasets - Blog post - More
None
Downloads
Reblogs

Examples of additional scholarly output/professional contributions
Blogs
Invited Interviews
Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Datasets
Patents
Software
Copyrights

More examples of altmeasuring
Downloads and page views
Track-backs
Tweets and retweets
Links from review services (e.g. Facultyof1000)
Sharing, social bookmarking

Other forces at work
Increasing requirements for open data
Foundation funding (e.g. Gates)
Government funding
Big data
Predatory publishing

Journal-level tools
Each publisher does it a slightly different way

BMC Medicine

Circulation (AHA via Highwire)

BMC Neuroscience via SpringerLink

Early tools for non-traditional products
Measured web views and downloads
Google Analytics
Bit.ly
Spring Metrics

Leading tools for altmetrics
Evolved to address non-traditional scholarship as well as traditional outputs
ImpactStory
Altmetric.com
PlumX

Impactstory
Impactstory is a place to learn and share all the ways your research is making a difference
Jason Priem and Heather Piwowar
Free for 30 days, then $60 a year.

Sample Impactstory Profile

Profile Metrics

Article Details

Altmetric.com
London-based start-up
Funding from Digital Science (LabGuru, FigShare)

Altmetrics widget (donut)
Used by publishers/journals
Nature Publishing, Cell Press
Springer
BioMed Central
BMJ Specialty journals

Nature Neuroscience

Altmetric Explorer
Subscription product monitor, search and measure conversations about your publications and those of your competitors
Pricing options

Altmetric Bookmarklet
Free
Reading a paper and want to find out its Altmetric details? Install the bookmarklet in your browser
When viewing the paper, Altmetric it

Altmetric Bookmarklet

Plum Analytics
Gathers metrics (altmetrics) about research from more than thirty sources including PLOS, PubMed and YouTube, and categorizes them
PlumX is an institutional impact dashboard that provides information on how research output is being utilized, interacted with, and talked about around the world.

Plum Analytics
PlumX Metric Categories
Usage (downloads, views, ILL)
Captures (favorites, bookmarks)
Mentions (blog posts, news, Wikipedia)
Social Media (tweets, likes)
Citations (PubMed, Scopus, patents)

PlumX in Action
Pitt PlumX dashboard https://plu.mx/pitt/g/
Michael Pinsky, MD https://plu.mx/u/mpinsky

PlumX Author Profile

Article View

However

Standards arent fully defined
Definitions, calculations, etc.
NISO effort
Are altmetrics important for discovery? For evaluation? Both?
Issues

Issues
Impact vs. attention
David C.s Improbable Science Why you should ignore altmetrics and other bibliometric nightmares
http://www.dcscience.net/?p=6369
Popularity
Popular topics get higher counts, quickly, but then fade. How does this reflect quality?

Issues
Does social media help promote good science? Or not? (e.g. anti-vaccine)

Altmetrics: worth pursuing? If you think yes

What you can do now
Check what measurements/metrics are available for your articles
Consider deposit of your other products of research

What you can do now
Investigate use of free measurement tools (Altmetric bookmarklet, ImpactStory profile)
Set up social media profiles and lurk
Experiment with low-commitment activities

Example
Choose a journal/database
Find one of your articles
Check the altmetrics
Go to Twitter
Search for your discipline/area of research
See what information has been shared/who is sharing it

Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS [email protected]
Andrea H. Denton, MLIS
[email protected]
Questions?