Deep Impact [Factor]

Altmetrics from a PhD perspective

Jon TennantPhD student, Imperial College London

Seeking employment

Who am I..?

• Palaeontologist by day, none of your business by night• Interested in open science and science

communication• Not a huge fan of legacy publishers• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7794-0218• @Protohedgehog• http://blogs.egu.eu/network/palaeoblog/

What are Altmetrics?• A compliment to traditional metrics

(e.g., citation indices)• Enhance how we understand the re-

use of research• Highly variable – a ‘basket’ of metrics

• Four different categories:• Scholarly activity (e.g Mendeley)• Social activity representing brief

engagements• Scholarly commentary (expert

blogs, Wikipedia)• Mass media coverage

Savage (2015) Scientists in the Twitterverse, Cell, 162(2), 233-234

• Most publishers now employ some sort of altmetric measuring system

The scope of Altmetrics

• Development of a ‘persona’ for research and researchers• Measures aspects of social

influence• Recognises need for public

dissemination of research• The role of social media in

communicating science• Most effective platforms for

distributing researchhttp://errantscience.com/blog/2015/07/08/how-to-measure-a-scientist/

• Online science communication now kind of a big deal• Each aspect can be tracked and measured

Bik and Goldstein (2013) An introduction to social media for scientists, PLOS Biology, 11(4), e1001535

Altmetrics as a part of Open Science

Altmetrics as an essential tool for ECRs

• Blogging, tweeting etc. all now part of mainstream science• How do you measure the success of these?• Part of the ‘open science’ toolkit for

researchers• Goes beyond traditional measures of

‘impact’• An integral part of 21st Century science

Impact factor disease

http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2012/08/13/sick-of-impact-factors/

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/abstract

HEFCE metrics report

The rising metrics tide

The HEFCE metrics report

• Everyone is sceptical about the use of metrics in assessment• Metrics can’t replace peer-review as the primary mode of assessment• Assessment requires a combination of qualitative and carefully selected

quantitative indicators• Metrics can be used to compliment narrative case studies• The responsible use of metrics (which academics are great at..)

• Robustness• Humility• Transparency• Diversity• Reflexivity

What does the science say?

• arXiv articles show positive correlation between rapid citations and downloads and Twitter mentions (Shuai et al., 2012, PLOS ONE)• Highly tweeted articles 11x more likely to be cited (Eysenbach, 2011, JMIR)• Social media therefore either increases citations, or reflects qualities that predict

citations, such as societal impact• Twimpact factor! A ‘real-time’ impact metric?

• Different ‘flavours’ of ‘impact’ that capture different aspects of tools and audiences (Priem et al., 2012, arXiv)• Positive but weak correlations between altmetrics and citations (

Costas et al., 2014 arXiv) (early view)• They capture different elements of the research dissemination process

Scopus article-level metrics

•Citation count and percentile benchmark•Field-Weighted Citation Impact•Mendeley readership count and benchmark•Count of scholarly commentary (e.g., blog posts, Wikipedia)•Count and benchmark of social activity (e.g., Twitter, Facebook)•Total count of additional metrics and link to see breakdown by source

Do Altmetrics measure ‘quality’?

• What is ‘high quality’ research?• What about journal and publisher brands, citation metrics, impact factors

(ugh..), peer-review procedures..?• How do you measure inspiration? Education? Creativity? Innovation?• How do Altmetrics fit into this?• Is ‘quality’ even measurable..?• http://trianglesci.org/2015/05/15/the-qualities-of-quality/• The hyper-dimensionality of research

• Academic impact (e.g., originality rigour)vs societal impact (i.e., reach)

Afterthoughts/coffee discussion points

• Altmetrics don’t solve our problem about assessing ‘impact’ of research• But they do help us to think more about its societal reach• Go beyond what traditional metrics show about research re-use• Have to use metrics responsibly• The reality of academia• National Information Standards Initiative – altmetrics for software and data? (details)• What can ECRs do?

• Sign DORA! (12,300 individuals, 570 organisations)• Discourage use of impact factors• Encourage use of altmetrics and social media• Influence performance metrics at an institutional level

Thanks for listening!