investigating the impact of e-theses at dcu - det kgl. … · investigating the impact of e-theses...
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DART-Europe Master Class 2010
Investigating the impact of e-theses at DCU
Martin MoyleDigital Curation ManagerUCL Library [email protected]
Rachel HillIR ManagerDublin City [email protected]
LIBER 2010, Aarhus, Denmark, 29 June – 01 July 2010
Overview
• DCU and e-theses• Measures of impact• Tools for measuring impact at DCU • Tools for measuring impact at DCU • Example evidence from DCU• Limitations• Making use of impact data
Dublin City University
• Dublin City University is located in Dublin, Ireland• 30 years old• Over 10,000 students• Over 10,000 students
– 2600 postgraduates• 750 postgraduate
research students• http://www.dcu.ie
E-theses at DCU
• 80-120 research (PhD and Master) theses awarded per annum• E-thesis mandate since September 2008• 231 e-theses in repository • 179 of these are open access
http://doras.dcu.ie
Impact metrics for e-theses
• Quantitative data– E-thesis downloads
• Number of downloads• Provenance of downloads• Comparison with print usage
– E-thesis views– E-thesis views– Referring sites– Inlinks
• Qualitative data– Formal (surveys)– Informal (feedback forms, anecdote)
Impact evidence: tools used at DCU
• Tools used to discover quantitative evidence– Repository weblog analysis– Google Analytics– Google Webmaster Tools– Library management system statistics– Library management system statistics
• Qualitative – No formal measures used at DCU
Impact data from DCU (1)
• IRStats– Weblog analysis package for GNU EPrints
• Enables reporting on number and provenance • Enables reporting on number and provenance of downloads
• By eprint, document type, date, department, etc.
IRStats top 10 items downloaded overall
IRStats top 10 e-theses downloaded in 2009
IRStats e-theses downloads, 2009
• Total thesis downloads in 2009: 16,212• Theses accounted for 22% of all DCU repository downloads• Over 2,500 thesis downloads per month by November/December
Average downloads per item in 2009
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Provenance of thesis downloads, 2009
• Range of European and non-European countries
• 83% of downloads were from countries were from countries outside Ireland
Impact data from DCU (2)
• Google Analytics– Google’s view of your web traffic– Useful data on page views, referring sites, etc.– Useful data on page views, referring sites, etc.
Google Analytics stats – top pages in 2009
GA top abstract pages in 2009
GA top entrance sources for sample thesis
Impact data from DCU (3)
• Google Webmaster Tools– Provides information about the visibility of your
website in Google• Inlinks• Searches
Google Webmaster Tools: in-links
Google Webmaster Tools: searches
Impact data from DCU (4)
• Library Catalogue data– Enables comparison of print loans and e-thesis
downloads
Print theses vs e-theses 2009
2000
2500
3000
Print theses accessed vs. e-theses downloaded in 2009
0
500
1000
1500
Jan-0
9Fe
b-09
Mar-09
Apr-0
9May
-09Ju
n-09
Jul-0
9Au
g-09
Sep-
09Oct-
09No
v-09
Dec-0
9
Electronic
Total of 518 print thesis loans in 2009Total of 16,212 e-theses full-text downloads in 2009
Print theses vs e-theses 2009
• Dunne, Ciaran (2008) 'We know them, but we don't know them': a grounded theory approach to exploring host students' perspectives on intercultural contact in an Irish university. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.
700• In 2009 this thesis received:
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Most downloaded thesis in 2009
Electronic
received:– 593 electronic
downloads– 11 print
consultations
Qualitative examples
• Not collected systematically at DCU. However:– Irish health association example– Similar examples at UCL– DART sponsorship example– DART sponsorship example
• Keep your feedback
Limitations of measuring e-thesis impact
• Page views, downloads etc only indicate activity– Downloads do not necessarily turn into citations– We know people are discovering e-theses; we do
not know if they are reading them, citing themnot know if they are reading them, citing them• Gathering data requires resources• The data is not an end in itself - need to make use of
the findings• Several potential ‘consumers’...
Making use of impact data (1)
• Use by libraries/repositories– Help OA advocacy– Show return on repository investment– Make the case for digitisation resources– Make the case for digitisation resources– Build confidence to dispose of print theses
• Use by thesis authors– Take encouragement for further research – Encouragement to publish – Evidence for future funding / job applications
Making use of impact data (2)
• Repository users– Strong usage record can act as a ‘quality mark’
• Publishers– Download counts and provenance may influence
decision to publishdecision to publish• Funders
– Usage figures can confirm value for money• Webometrics agencies
– Metrics used: visibility (inlinks), size, richness (full text), Google Scholar coverage
– OA theses help to raise ‘webometric’ impact
Making use of impact data (3)
• Use by Universities– Impact figures can help to ‘showcase’ a University’s
research– Can be used as part of the Graduate recruitment effort,
e.g. at UCLe.g. at UCL– Universities are the main beneficiaries of improved
performance in webometrics rankings• e.g. Universities ‘league tables’ at
http://www.webometrics.info– Additional evidence for research assessment, eg UK
‘REF’ (Research Excellence Framework)
