Encouraging undergraduate students to participate as

authors of scientific publications

Antony Williams

ACS San Francisco

August 2014

This talk is to students…

• BUT…even if you are not a student PLEASE consider what you can do as a supervisor and teacher to help…

• It is our job to train, facilitate and encourage• How will students learn to write and have

peer review early?• The value of learning about the challenges of

sharing data, using standards, developing collaborations and early contribution….

My Publication Record

• BSc 1982-85 and PhD 1985-88

• Not a single publication in six years… Why?

My Publication Record

• BSc 1982-85 and PhD 1985-88• Not a single publication in six years… Why?• But I did a lot of research!

• Made a lot of chemicals – synthetic data• Measured a LOT of spectral data• Measured a lot of property data• Did a lot of computational work• Wrote a lot of code

• But that was in the 1980s…

As a Young Scientist…

• It takes time to build a publication profile

• Writing, submitting, getting reviewed, getting published could be many months!

• It’s easy to become an Online Scientist today!

• Contribution to science is a few keystrokes away – sharing, part of the likesonomy culture

Sharing science today

• At any point in your scientific career you can technically share data

• If you make it, study it, measure it then you can report on it…

• There are many platforms to share your data, your skills, your experience and yourself

• YES..it IS self-marketing….

Visibility Means Discoverability

• Q: Does a Social Profile as a scientist matter?

• You are visible, when you share your skills, experience and research activities by:• Establishing a public profile• Getting on the record• Collaborative Science• Demonstrating a skill set• Contributing to the public peer review process• Many ways to become “visible”

The Alt-Metrics Manifesto

http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/

Altmetrics Score

AltMetrics via Plum Analytics

Detailed Usage Statistics

Such Stats “Quantify” You

• We are quantified

• Stats are gathered and analyzed

• Employers can find them, tenure will depend on them and these already happen without your participation

• Scientists Impact Factors, H-index and many other variants.

How I am Quantified…

How I am Quantified…

Google Scholar Citations

Tweets are “publications”?

Your slides are publications?

SlideShare

Is Data A Publication?

Is Data A Publication?

ChemSpider

Cholesterol on ChemSpider

Deposition of Data

Deposit structures, spectra, properties, data collections (thousands of compounds etc)

Being a Data Source

How much data is lost?

• How many reactions in a thesis never get published?

• How many spectra of common materials could be shared?

• How many properties are measured and lost?• What stands in the way of sharing?

• Is it technology? • Permissions? “The Boss”, Licensing?

What about Syntheses?

ChemSpider SyntheticPages

Submission process

• Register

• Use the Submit button and fill in the fields…

Submission Process

• Submissions reviewed by editorial board

• Published as is or comments sent to author

• Online Peer Review process – engage chemists in ongoing discussions and feedback loop

• Data supported include web movies, images, live spectra etc.

Profile

Interactive Data

Most Accessed

Popular Authors

Future Recognition on

Future Recognition on Plum Analytics?

ChemSpider

How much work?

• How much work is done generating and analyzing data?

• How long does it take to write a publication?

• How much work does it take to go through the peer review process?

• How much effort to represent your science – presentations, publications?

…and do you market it???

• How much work is putting into “Marketing” a publication/presentation?

• How much work do you put into your own profile as a scientist (versus other aspects of you on Facebook )

• Even if you are not going to be a scientist your online profile is increasingly important.

Kudos Enhance the Article

Focus Efforts on One Article

The Article of Interest

Altmetrics Score

Explain

Enrich

Enrich

Enrich

Enrich

Completed

Share Twitter and Facebook

Measure (15 hours)

• Persistent unique digital identifier

• Integrates to workflows such as manuscript and grant submission

• Supports automated linkages with your professional activities

Enabled by

Benefits of “Publishing“ Early..

• Publishing is changing and has many forms

• Data, figures, reports, videos, and…

• Online exposure develops reputation, benefits the community, engages discussion and collaboration.

• RSC Platform open to chemistry data: chemicals, property data, spectral data, syntheses etc.

Thank you

Email: williamsa@rsc.orgORCID: 0000-0002-2668-4821 Twitter: @ChemConnectorPersonal Blog: www.chemconnector.com SLIDES: www.slideshare.net/AntonyWilliams