AMERICAN UNIVERSITY DEMOGRAPHICS

Private university in Washington, DC

Applied social science focus International Service Public Affairs Communication

FTE ~13,000 Half undergrad, half grad

Growing emphasis on research Recent R2 designation Administrative focus on infrastructure

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Subject specialist model Aligned with schools

Some research-focused specialists Research Data librarian

GIS librarian

Institutional Repository librarian

Shared scholarly communication responsibilities

Metrics support Me

Other subject specialists

METRICS SUPPORT MODEL

Library support LibGuide

Individual consultations

Workshops

Library promotion Annual faculty brunch

Conference for High Impact Research

Partnered promotion Tenure/promotion faculty review body

Provost’s office

SIS research office & other schools

FOCUS AND STRATEGIES

Primary focus: empowering tenure-track faculty

Packaging the message to faculty Increasing impact

Successful internal/external evaluations

Left: tenure-track orientationAbove: Conference for High Impact Research

INCREASING IMPACT: STRATEGIC PUBLICATION DECISIONS

Key messages explore options

consider audience, purpose of content, available metrics

Metrics and tools JIF (JCR), SJR/CiteScore (SCImagoJR.com,

journalmetrics.com, Scopus)

focus on subject categories, quartiles

ALMs (directly from publisher)

INCREASING IMPACT: INCREASING DISCOVERABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY

Key messages- discoverable -> citeable- OA, IR- Scholarly networks, including Google Scholar profile- ORCID- abstract & keywords- start early

Metrics and tools- DOAJ, subject guides, library assistance

INCREASING IMPACT: EVALUATIONS

Key Messages:- disciplinary standards vary- tell a story, but don’t cherrypick- consider your audience, guidelines, advice, and culture

Metrics and tools:- Altmetric, ImpactStory- Publish or Perish- Web of Science (usage and citations), Scopus (altmetrics and citations), Google Scholar

ALTMETRICS CORRELATIONS

https://arxiv.org/abs/1203.4745; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.23309/full

DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC IMPACT

https://www.researchtrends.com/issue-30-september-2012/the-use-of-big-datasets-in-bibliometric-research/

FACULTY EXAMPLE: TENURE FILE

Assistant Professor, School of International Service

Scholarship bridges academic and professional worlds

1 book, 1 forthcoming

5 peer-reviewed articles

Many think tank articles

Commentaries / op eds

Image: https://twitter.com/brecke/status/798191441981775872

BOOK RESOURCES

Summon for book review discovery

Amazon AuthorCentral for sales and reviews

GoodReads for reviews

Book Citation Index, Scopus, Google Scholar for citations

WorldCat for holdings

Google for further evidence of impact

Primary qualitative focus, some metrics

Brainstormed ways to justify publisher quality in his field

JOURNAL RESOURCES

Metrics and tools JIF (JCR) SJR (SCImagoJR.com for subject rankings) H5-index (Google Scholar Metrics) Views/downloads (directly from publisher) Altmetric bookmarklet Special: APSA survey journal rankings,

http://www.auspsa.org.au/publications

Quantitative focus with qualitative elements Methodology explanation

EVERYTHING ELSE

Think tank articles & commentaries Google for evidence of impact Newspaper/magazine circulation

Relaying information Provost Committee on Faculty Actions

Further resources Recently tenured faculty / other colleagues Department guidelines / faculty manual Previous letters of evaluation

Future actions Open access Scholarly networks and uploading pre-pub manuscripts

TIPS FOR DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS

Leverage existing connections

Ask to be included

.. or just show up!

Handouts can serve multiple functions Proxy for in-person presentation

Follow-up contacts for faculty

Supplement to presentation

Deliver additional key messages E.g. open access, IR, additional library support and services

TIPS FOR ENGAGING WITH RESEARCHERS

Focus on key messages, avoid jargon and don’t overwhelm with details Impact vs. bibliometrics

Tinyurl.com/AUmetrics

Be consistent with terminology and messages

Package metrics into topics of interest E.g., “increasing impact”, “finding

your h-index”

Encourage word of mouth

THANK YOU!

Rachel Borchardtborchard@american.edu

Meaningful Metrics, 2015 publication, freely available as an OA PDF e-book

Some previous presentations: https://www.slideshare.net/Plethora121