M A R Y E L L E N S L O A N E ,S C H O L A R L Y C O M M U N I C A T I O N S L I B R A R I A N

F O R B A S I C A N D A P P L I E D S C I E N C E S ,M I D D L E T E N N E S S E E S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

BRACE FOR IMPACT: NEW MEANS OF MEASURING

RESEARCH METRICS

OUTLINE

• Impact Factor system• Evolution of Scholarly Communication• Altmetrics sources

• Open access platforms• Sharing platforms• Saving platforms

• Hacking altmetrics• Impact of altmetrics

SUMMARY

• As open access journals and repositories gain a foothold in scholarly communication, researchers are finding that the traditional impact factor and citation count metrics only reflect a portion of the dissemination of scholarly works.

• New technology, research, and citation tools aid our ability to measure the influence of research. A matrix of tools and initiatives, like PLoS Article-Level Metrics, BePress’ Author Dashboard, Mendeley, Altmetrics, and ImpactStory are providing a more robust picture of scholarly communication today.

• This presentation will provide an overview of the impact factor system and new tools for gathering metrics and their relevance for librarians and researchers.

IMPACT FACTOR SYSTEM

• The impact factor system measures the number of citations for a given journal over a period of time.

IMPACT FACTOR SYSTEM

IMPACT FACTOR SYSTEM

• Not always a good indicator of quality research• Journal ‘impact’ is relative to an article’s value• Not necessarily meaningful to authors or researchers• Self-citations can skew results• Focuses on overall impact, as opposed to article-

level measures• Review journals have more citations• San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment –

concerns with impact system• Open access sources may not be represented• Tenure and promotion criteria tied to publishing

EIGENFACTOR

EVOLUTION OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

• New means of publishing• Institutional repositories• Sharing data sets• Sharing code • Sharing presentations• Sharing video • Article-level metrics can help encourage publishing

in open-access journals and repositories• Open access publishing and sharing is increasing • Social networks can evolve organically and include

open access and other sources of sharing

EVOLUTION OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

• Ability to measure use by readers, researchers• Earlier indicators of research impact

• Web of Science:

• Mendeley:

EVOLUTION OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

METRICS SOURCES

• Social media • Blog posts, Wikipedia• Sharing links to publisher full text• Open access views, downloads, citations, followers• Bookmarks, favorites• Citation saving and groups• Worldcat holdings• Standard citation counts• PlumX - http://www.plumanalytics.com/metrics.html

METRICS SOURCES

• Open access sources:• Dryad • Figshare• GitHub• BePress• dSpace• PLOS

• Saves• Mendeley, • citeulike• Delicious

• Uses• Youtube, Vimeo• Slideshare

• Shares• Twitter• Facebook• Bit.ly

• Citations• Web of Science• Scopus• Google Scholar• PubMed

• Aggregate metrics• Altmetrics, and • ImpactStory• Plum X

WEB OF SCIENCE ARTICLE METRICS

• C&RL Impact Factor:

• Citation map:

OPEN ACCESS - PLOS

OPEN ACCESS - FIGSHARE

OPEN ACCESS - DRYAD

INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM

• Articles Metrics from publishers

ACCURACY PROBLEMS

IMPACT STORY

ALTMETRIC

PLUMX

• PlumX Tracks Groups• University• Institute• Museum• Department• Lab• Company• Publisher• Journal• Volume• Issue• Collection

SO WHAT ?

• How many are using social media and reference managers in meaningful ways?

• How meaningful are the metrics?• Links between related items, article and data

set• Can easily be gamed• Debate over early downloads as indicator of

later citation• Limited to DOI in some cases• Disciplines may use different platforms and tools

HACKING METRICS

• Does this milk smell bad?

IMPACT OF ALTMETRICS

• New ways to perform bibliometrics• New ways to do research• New ways to share and connect• Recent articles will have more altmetrics• Discipline-specific measures of impact• Tenure and promotion considerations• Researcher’s dissemination will evolve• At some point will become customary

COMING SOON

• NISO Alternative Assessment Metrics (Altmetrics) Project

• Here Comes the Sunburst: Measuring and Visualizing Scholarly Impact – Sunday 11/10 – 9:00 am