the library platform & altmetrics

The Library Platform & Altmetrics

Sue WortmanSocial Work LibrarianUniversity of MichiganJune 17, 2014

Ways Libraries Facilitate Knowledge

• Provide Access• Provide Training• Provide a safe environment• Build motivation to learn

• Badging• Curricular, co-curricular connected• Transforming student learning• Scale and monetization• Pedagogy driving change• Innovation and experimentation• Digital education/online environment• Residential learning: authentic, participatory,

problem-based• Engaged learning: service, study abroad, action-based• Learning technology• Portfolios and reflective learning• Collaboration• Community, diversity, civil engagement

University

• Innovation and experimentation

• Digital education/online environment

• Learning technology• Collaboration• Community

• Provide access• Provide training• Provide safe

environment• Build motivation to

learn

=

+

Library

Altmetrics

Altmetrics Manifesto - 2010

1. “Peer-review is antiquated due to changes in the speed of scholarly publishing and doesn’t hold reviewers accountable.”

2. “Counting citations is insufficient and can take years for reliable results.”

3. “Journal impact factors are suspect and are used for purposes for which they were never intended.”

“Do not use journal-based metrics, suchas Journal Impact Factors (JIFs), as surrogate measures of the quality of individual research articles, to assess individual scientists’ contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions.”

• April 2013 – Elsevier acquired Mendeley• May 2013 – Wiley piloted providing data from Altmetric in

their open access journals• June 2013 – National Information Standards Organization

(NISO) project starts• January 2014 – Plum Analytics is acquired by EBSCO &

Taylor & Francis partner with Figshare• February 2014 – SpringerLink adds Altmetric• March 2014 – British platform Kudos relaunched with

Altmetric data• June 9, 2014 – NISO releases first draft of their white paper

on standardizing altmetrics• June 14, 2014 – Altmetric releases tool to gather institution-

wide metrics

Standardization

1. Defining altmetrics2. Including different forms of research

outputs3. Making work discoverable earlier4. Measuring quality of research5. Gaming the system – making data open &

standardized6. Aggregating/grouping alternative metrics7. Using the data in context

University of Michigan Researchers

• School of Social Work – Collaborative Tools

University of Michigan Librarians

What Can Librarians Do?

• Stay informed• Be a part of the current conversations• Know the tools• Integrate altmetrics into outreach & education

Lapinski, S., Piwowar, H. & Priem, J. (2013). Riding the crest of the altmetrics wave: How librarians can help prepare faculty for the next generation of research impact metrics. College & Research Library News, 74(6), 292-300.

“Although moves toward a major reliance on [altmetrics and ALMs] in research are premature, and the notion of an ‘article impact factor’ is fraught with difficulty, with the development of standards, transparency and improved understanding of these metrics, they will be come valuable sources of evidence of the research of individual research outputs, as well as tools to support new ways to navigate the literature.”

- David Drubin

• Provide access to altmetrics and ALM

• Provide training on altmetrics and ALM

• Provide a safe environment

• Build motivation to learn about altmetrics and ALM

“Be it practice, policies, programs, and/or tools, librarians seek to enrich, capture, store and disseminate the conversations of their community.”

R. David Lankes

Credits• “Platform 3A”, by Lena Vaseljeva, https://flic.kr/p/eSPQG7 • Watson, R. (2010). Future files: a brief history of the next 50 years. [New

ed.]. London: Nicholas Brealey Pub.• Lankes, R. D. (2012). Expect more: Demanding better libraries for today’s

complex world. http://quartz.syr.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ExpectMoreOpen.pdf

• Priem, J., Taraborelli, D., Neylon, C. (2010/. Altmetrics: A manifesto, (v.1.0), 26 October 2010. http://altmetrics.org/manifesto

• San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, http://am.ascb.org/dora

• Drubin, D. (2014, June 11). Time to discard the metric that decides how science is rated. The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/time-to-discard-the-metric-that-decides-how-science-is-rated-27733

• Lankes, R. D. (2011). The atlas of new librarianship. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Questions?