So What is the Real Impact of Web 2.0 on Researcher Workflow?

Anna DrabbleHead of Digital & Product Development

20th July 2011

Innovation & Digital Development @ Emerald

• Innovation core to Emerald

• Renewed focus in 2011

• Digital & Product Development function newly formed to:

– Create new online products and services

– Ensure digital content is discoverable and delivered across multiple channels

– Better understand and meet the changing needs of researchers in an online environment

Research Aims

• Are Social Media impacting upon researcher workflows?

• If so, how should Librarians and Publishers respond?

Global Survey

• 2,414 researchers

• 215 countries

• Arts and Humanities, STM, Social Sciences inc. Business

Methodology

1,923

users

491

non-users

Research partners• Emerald & UCL

Contributors & Groups• Charleston Conference • Cambridge University Press• Taylor & Francis• Wolters Kluwer• Imperial College, London• Manchester University• Edinburgh University

Contrast Group

Most Popular Social Media in Research

• Big gap between awareness (orange) & actual use (green) in 7 / 8 categories

Social Media Tools Used

Few Tools Used

Generic Services Rule

Social Media Used For….

Identifying Research Opportunities

Disseminating ResearchFindings

Research Collaboration

Perceived social media benefitsDoes visibility drive esteem? .

Social Media Enthusiasts

Differences by age group? Not much!

Importance Attached to Specific Dissemination Channel

What Users Want from Publishers

Content readable on

all platforms

42.8%

Links to the data behind the

published

article 33.4%

Greater use

of multimedia

11.2%RSS as

standard

6.4%

Multilingual

capabilities

6.3%

Linking

Interoperability

What Users Want from Libraries

Add a social network

interface to the

library catalogue

14.2%

Index full text Library

holdings 56%

Preserve

Web 2.0

content

7.9%Catalogue

Web 2.0 content

9.8%

Socially tag library

Catalogue 11.7%

Make the Library

more like Google

Does Social Media Mark a Watershed in Research Process?

• Not really…….

Research Workflow

Core Research Process Unchanged – But Communication has Evolved Significantly

Identify opportunity : review literature : carry out research communicate findings via a scholarly publication

1665: Printed Journal

Travel infrastructure (roads, rail)

Conferences (Social Media)Internet

Telephone ????

Researcher’s World Getting Bigger& More Complex…

...So Metrics & Authority Matter More

Coming soon – COUNTER Journal Usage Factor / Article Usage Factor (2012/2013)

REF ListsCitation Rankings

Implications for Researchers

• Scope for research expanding, especially Social Science

• More tasks – and more checking

• Social Media outlets no competition for releasing research (concern over releasing “unsafe” data)

BUT

• Great for identifying researchopportunities and amplifyingdissemination

Implications for Librarians

• Library & librarians not mentioned once in 2 researcher dominated groups – 4 hrs of discussion

• “Library is a building: Google is the whole world”

• Version of Record is key

• Opportunity to influence workflow and increase research efficiency, but how to maximise impact – not clear

Librarians & Publishers Face a Shared Challenge….

• …..facilitating the creation and communication of scholarly research

How well are we evolving to meet this challenge?