STI Conference 2016| Valencia
September 14-16, 2016
SSH & the City.
A network approach for tracing the societal
contribution of the Social Sciences and
Humanities for local development
Nicolas Robinson-Garcia, Thed N. van Leeuwen & Ismael Ràfols
Index
Rationale
Alternative frameworks
Towards a network approach
Some results
Discussion
EVALUATION SCHEMES address…
Rationale
1. Natural & Exact Sciences
2. Global Communities Internationalization
3. Scientific Impact
EVALUATION SCHEMES neglect…
Rationale
1. Social Sciences & Humanities
2. Local Communities
3. Societal Impact
Only socioeconomic and with limitations
The attribution problem
Researcher
Paper
Citation
Progress
SCIENTIFIC IMPACT
The attribution problem
Researcher
Paper?
Project?
????
Progress
SOCIETAL IMPACT
From impact to process
indicators
“The introduction of knowledge about the
process into assessment procedures will
also help us to understand how
(potential) social impact is being
achieved.”
Spaapen & Drooge, 2011
From impact to process
indicators
RESEARCH QUESTION
Can we identify these processes?
HYPOTHESIS
Social media as a way tracing interactions
between researchers and non-academics
From Impact to Process
Third Stream Metrics
Productive interactions
Knowledge Value Alliances
Theore
tical
fram
ew
ork
s
Third Stream Metrics
Molas-Gallart et al., 2002
University
Activities
Contractresearch
Collaborationnetworks
Capabilities
Patents Spin-offs
Productive interactions
SCIENCESOCIETY
Productive
interactions
Spaapen & Drooge, 2011
Productive interactions
Spaapen & Drooge, 2011
Direct interactions personal – email
Indirect interactions texts – artifacts
Financial interactions contracts - funding
Knowledge Value
Alliances
COLLECTIVE A
COLLECTIVE B
COLLECTIVE C
Knowledge Value
Alliances
Rogers & Bozeman, 2001
Towards a network
approach
Capabilities and activities
=
Nodes and flows
Towards a network
approach
1. Mutuals network of academic A 2. Levels of outreach
A
B
C
3. Characterised mutuals local network
LEGEND
A Global research network
B Local/global profesional network
C Local network
Node colours represent organisation to which a tweep belongs.
Twitter and other social media
Web-links
Contracts, spin-off, patents
Publications in Google Scholar
Publications in Scopus/WoS
More
local
More
glo
balS
cie
ntific
impact
Socie
tal
impact
Social media and
informal interactions
Web-link analysis
FAIL!
Social media and
informal interactions
The value of Twitter
Community building capacity
Combination between private and professional
interests
Escaping from the ‘publication-focused’
approach
Non-academics do not necessarily read papers
Some results
Edwin Horlings’ social community in Twitter
Some results
Edwin Horlings’ social community in Twitter
Geographical proximity
LOCAL
GLOBAL
Some results
Ludo Waltman’s social community in Twitter
Some results
Geographical proximity
LOCAL
GLOBAL
Ludo Waltman’s social community in Twitter
Measuring vs. mapping
Turning from ‘evaluative’ assessment to
‘strategic’ assessment
Usefulness as a policy tool?
Mapping as a first step/complement to
qualitative approaches
Indicators vs. Visualisations
Societal impact is difficult to grasp, social
engagement maybe a prior step towards it
Measuring vs. mapping
Where does social engagement takes
place?
• Finding the appropriate traces
There are many data restrictions and
limitations using social media
• Characterising users
• Levels of aggregation
Further steps
Analysis of social communities of scientists
using different data sources (LinkedIn, Google
Scholar…)
Cross-validation of the network
Overlaying discourse
ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!
STI Conference 2016| Valencia
September 14-16, 2016
Thank you!Nicolas Robinson-Garcia, Thed N. van Leeuwen & Ismael Ràfols