researchers' use of social media and altmetrics in south...

Researchers' use of social media and altmetrics in South Africa

Marinus Swanepoel PhD. PhD (HC).

Outline

• Introduction

• Research question

• Challenges

• Methodology

• Results

• Conclusion

Introduction

Social media and altmetrics

The power of social media

Research questions

• Altmetrics is a recent development, are academics aware of it?

• If they are, do they consider it in their scholarly communication?

• Do they recognize that social media can enlarge and enhance their scholarly/academic footprint?

• What social media services are they using?

• What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media?

• Challenges

– Mobility of academics

– Demographics

– Ethics approval

– Distinguishing between private and departmental use of social media

– #mustfall unrest

Mobility of academics

Demographics

http://blog.funmobility.com/2014/09/18/social_media_demographics_2014/

Ethics approval

Distinguishing between private and departmental use of social media

#mustfall unrest

Methodology

• Identification of interviewees

Serial # # items in Scopus

SAP01 335

SAP02 264

SANS03 242

SASS04 180

SANS05 139

SASS06 105

SANS07 70

SASS08 46

SAHM09 23

SAHM10 17


SANS11 214

SAP12 144

SAP13 102

SAP14 74

SANS15 50

SASS16 39

SASS17 39

SANS18 24

SAHM19 18

SAHM20 13


SANS21 272

SANS22 271

SANS23 192

SAP24 125

SAP25 116

SASS26 61

SASS27 56

SAHM28 37

SASS29 34

SAHM30 12

Serial # # of items in Scopus

# of items in Web of Science

# of items in Google Scholar

# of items in inst. repository

# of items in Research Gate

SAP01 335 362 * 47 *

SAP02 264 336 416 130 379

SANS03 242 59 389 57 313

SASS04 180 104 * 208 216

SANS05 139 173 209 71 244

SASS06 105 35 * 161 78

SANS07 70 67 91 34 98

SASS08 46 141 312 43 106

SAHM09 23 16 163 13 81

SAHM10 17 7 89 27 51

Serial # # of items in Scopus



# of items in inst. repository

# of items in ResearchGate

SANS11 214 52 * 20 *

SAPM12 144 143 260 58 224

SAPM13 102 82 198 43 127

SAPI14 74 40 85 7 96

SANS15 50 42 * 30 *

SASS16 39 19 * 22 52

SASS17 39 32 * 13 7

SANS18 24 4 52 3 44

SAHM19 18 10 * 11 *

SAHM20 13 6 23 1 22

Serial #

# of items in Scopus



# of items in institutional repository

# of items in Research Gate

SANS21 272 266 413 142 432

SANS22 271 134 * 117 *

SANS23 192 197 * 154 265

SAP24 125 85 164 99 *

SAP25 116 98 * 44 *

SASS26 61 25 223 59 127

SASS27 56 3 153 1 23

SAHM28 37 32 * 61 *

SASS29 34 4 * 28 *

SAHM30 12 6 * 9 *

The interview

• Presentation on altmetrics

• Structured interview followed the presentation that was recorded and transcribed

Are South Africans academics aware of altmetrics?

• “Only two years ago one of my papers was published in a Wiley journal. I went in there and I saw this...., what do you called it, hamburger or a bun or.... the doughnut thing and I didn’t understand this. I went and look there and there was a lot of tweets and a lot of things going on about this paper… that was when I first became aware of altmetrics. ” Researcher in medicine

5/30

Do they consider altmetrics in their scholarly communication?

0/30

Considerations in where to publish

• Impact factor

• Audience of the journal

• Mandate of the journal

• Review process

• Speed

• Open Access

Do they recognize that social media can enlarge and enhance their scholarly/academic footprint?

• “It is not that I don’t approve of any of these things, I am concerned about how time consuming or perhaps all consuming they can become and divert my attention from more important activities.” Researcher in one of the professions

• “I have a link (profile) on LinkedIn and ResearchGate and they flood me with information and I just get actually quite angry sometimes and then I distance myself from the whole thing. So that kind of puts me off.” Researcher in one of the professions

Do they recognize that social media can enlarge and enhance their scholarly/academic footprint?

Continued 2

• “Recent events in this country put me off from social media. Especially as an academic you could quickly find yourself into big serious trouble.” Researcher in one of the professions

• “I am a bit wary to put my publications on social media because of copyright issues and things like that.” Researcher in the humanities

What social media services are they using?

6(2*)/30


“I find it incredibly rewarding. For me Twitter has become like a new source about my field and the fields that I am interesting in…. I have 500 and something followers” Researcher in the sciences

“…a page long summary, which we post on our website. Almost all of those are also converted to a Facebook page and Twitter feed.” Researcher in the science


• “So it (Facebook page) is designed really just for promoting the laboratory and its activities for whatever purpose, public awareness, recruiting, etc.” Researcher in the sciences

13(6*)/30

• “I am connected to some other scholars in my field on Facebook.” Researcher in the humanities

• “Yes, I make use of Facebook by saying: by the way guys this paper has just gone out….and quite often paste the link in.” Researcher in the social sciences

What social media services are they using? Continued 2

• “It is too much, I can’t handle this….. I have 1000’s of emails and this and…. so I am off ResearchGate.” Researcher in one of the professions

• “And I must say sometimes we are in a bit of a competition between the guys saying ‘I passed you on the (ResearchGate) score..’” Researcher in one of the professions

20/30


• “It sits there and occasionally, once ever three months I get an invite from some odd person and nothing else happens.” Researcher in the humanities

• “I do (have a LinkedIn account), but I don’t know…, I don’t use it. I don’t know what it is suppose to do.” Researcher in the social sciences

21(6*)/30


14(4*)/30

• “I struggle to use it (Academia.edu) for some reason. I find ResearchGate a lot easier.” Researcher in the sciences

• “Whenever I get to the website (Academia.edu), I always see the messages, and I send people articles, so that works.” Researcher in the humanities

• “I would say one star. I do I use it (Google+) a little bit. Successfully? I have no idea.” Researcher in the sciences

• “I get the odd request through Google+” Researcher in the sciences


5(2*)/30

What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media?

• “In my last application for the NRF rating, I just copied a nice

box of my Google Scholar profile. So, that is the only value. I should not be like that. I should talk to myself.” Researcher in the humanities

• “… with LinkedIn, it is nice to see my peers, who their connections are and people that I know. Via that route I have made nice connections.” Researcher in medicine

What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media? Continued 2

• “I find that it (ResearchGate) probably does assist substantially with the exposure with my work to the community.” Researcher in the science

• “ResearchGate, because it is community-driven, helps because if one of the authors places it (an article), it is there automatically. It reduces the load.” Researcher in the sciences

What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media? Continued 3

• “I have been quite active in making sure that ResearchGate has a pretty comprehensive list of my published works, I do that because I think it has visibility, and therefore value.” Researcher in the sciences

• “One of the sites that I use quite a lot for my data sets is ResearchGate. So, often, I either put the paper that is open access there or if it is not then I do a post-print. And then I link key data sets to those.” Researcher in the science

Conclusions

Older academics tend to have personal webpages where they make their academic artifacts available. The younger generation appears to rely more on social media and repositories.

“I put down the fact that I haven’t ever become engaged with it (Twitter), purely to age.” Researcher in the sciences

Some researchers realize that they can enhance their academic footprint through social media but lacks the motivation to act.

“I’ll have to reconsider my behavior (towards the use of social media for academic use) then. Of course I want to get more citations, but I am not putting in effort to get there, I just want to publish.” Researcher in the social science

Conclusions

Some researchers are skeptic about putting more effort into social media use because of a lack of perceived benefit.

“I have tried, and it (LinkedIn) is worthless as far as I can tell.” Researcher in the sciences

Conclusions

Follow up 2017

researchers' use of social media and altmetrics in south...

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