Why universities should care about Altmetrics

Sarah Goodier of OPENUCT Initiative talks about why universities should be taking notice of new developments in scholarly communication and metrics

Not surprisingly, academics don’t feel as if they own this space or have much control over it, so they have to go outside the university to showcase their work and collaborations – which is likely to help them attract recognition, prestige, funding and promotions. - See more at: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/blog/why-universities-should-care-about-altmetrics#sthash.GTIP0anB.dpuf

Not surprisingly, academics don’t feel as if they own this space or have much control over it, so they have to go outside the university to showcase their work and collaborations – which is likely to help them attract recognition, prestige, funding and promotions. - See more at: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/blog/why-universities-should-care-about-altmetrics#sthash.GTIP0anB.dpuf

Sarah Academics can and do utilise many Web 2.0 tools and service for research, collaboration and sharing outside of the institutional environment and altmetrics is a part of the toolkit that can be used to measure impact and monitor and assess shared research outputs at all points of the research cycle.
My take on this? For academia to stay up with the fast-paced changes in the digital world, the use of altmetrics is something that institutions should consider supporting and recognising in the near future - to better support academics and help to measure their online visibility as well as the impact of their work online.
- See more at: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/blog/why-universities-should-care-about-altmetrics#sthash.GTIP0anB.dpuf

Academics can and do utilise many Web 2.0 tools and service for research, collaboration and sharing outside of the institutional environment and altmetrics is a part of the toolkit that can be used to measure impact and monitor and assess shared research outputs at all points of the research cycle.
My take on this? For academia to stay up with the fast-paced changes in the digital world, the use of altmetrics is something that institutions should consider supporting and recognising in the near future - to better support academics and help to measure their online visibility as well as the impact of their work online.
- See more at: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/blog/why-universities-should-care-about-altmetrics#sthash.GTIP0anB.dpuf

Academics can and do utilise many Web 2.0 tools and service for research, collaboration and sharing outside of the institutional environment and altmetrics is a part of the toolkit that can be used to measure impact and monitor and assess shared research outputs at all points of the research cycle.
My take on this? For academia to stay up with the fast-paced changes in the digital world, the use of altmetrics is something that institutions should consider supporting and recognising in the near future - to better support academics and help to measure their online visibility as well as the impact of their work online.
- See more at: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/blog/why-universities-should-care-about-altmetrics#sthash.GTIP0anB.dpuf

Academics can and do utilise many Web 2.0 tools and service for research, collaboration and sharing outside of the institutional environment and altmetrics is a part of the toolkit that can be used to measure impact and monitor and assess shared research outputs at all points of the research cycle.
My take on this? For academia to stay up with the fast-paced changes in the digital world, the use of altmetrics is something that institutions should consider supporting and recognising in the near future - to better support academics and help to measure their online visibility as well as the impact of their work online.
- See more at: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/blog/why-universities-should-care-about-altmetrics#sthash.GTIP0anB.dpuf

Wake up to what the ‘article of the future’ is really all about

 

Thought-provoking blog post by Richard Padley
"If we were called upon, in the 21st Century, to redesign the ecosystem for scholarly communication from the ground up – tabla rasa, greenfield site – would we end up with what we have today? I doubt it. And I doubt whether anyone in our industry, even the most technophobic and heavily invested in the status quo, really believes that to be the case."

Top 5 altmetrics trends to watch in 2014

FROM

Openness
Acquisitions by the old guard
More complex modelling
Empowered scientists
Growing interest from administrators and funders

Read more 

Providing Library Research Support for Scholarly Publishing Literacy

This paper argues that scholarly publishing literacy should be treated as an extension of information literacy delivered through a broader research support framework. This paper presents a research librarian's perspective, and draws on literature and the author's practice to illustrate key points. Issues for further investigation are identified.

Librarians and Altmetrics: tools, tips & use cases

Some of you may already have seen this presentation (From Elsevier's Library Connect Feb 2014)

Librarians and Altmetrics: tools, tips & use cases

Altmetrics will, I feel, become more and more important in the field of scholarly communication - we need to know what is happening out there

Walking the talk - interesting blog post from Kevin Smith of Duke University

Walking the talk:
"All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career...."   

 (Thanks to Hilton Green for the alert to this blog post)

Duke University’s first Scholarly Communications Officer - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpufKev

(Kevin Smith is Duke's first Scholarly Communications officer - Debbie, Ujala, Roelien and I met him at the Berlin 12 OA conference in Stellenbosh)

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

Universities can improve academic services through wider recognition of altmetrics and alt-products.

Interesting piece from LSE blog
As altmetrics gain traction across the scholarly community, publishers and academic institutions are seeking to develop standards to encourage wider adoption. Carly Strasser provides an overview of why altmetrics are here to stay and how universities might begin to incorporate altmetrics into their own services. While this process might take some time, institutions can begin by encouraging their researchers to recognize the importance of all of their scholarly work (datasets, software, etc)...........

Academics’ online presence - should the Library be involved?

Academics’ online presence: A four-step guide to taking control of your visibility 

I was extremely please to discover (via Twitter!)  this excellent guide written by Laura Czerniewisz (a faculty member of UCT's Centre for Higher Education Development) and Sarah Goodier - both from the OpenUCT Initiative. I feel that the Rhodes Library will in future become more involved in assisting academics and senior postgrads to raise their research profiles - this Guide gives an excellent introduction to the topic.  

As some of you know I have been experimenting with tweeting research publications from Rhodes on @RhodesResearch since June last year.  You may like to have a look (the idea is that the Principal Faculty Librarians tweet articles - from the publisher's website - information is gleaned from affiliation alerts which we have set up on various databases). I also provide a monthly blog publication of research from the Science and Pharmacy Faculties (which I have found to be very popular with academics).

 It is early days yet but it will be interesting to see what the future holds in this area.  With the rise of organisations such as Altmetric and Impact Story which facilitate the collection of article level metrics we might well find that this will become an accepted part of our job responsibilities.  On that topic you might like to read the article by Amberyn Thomas  (Manager, Scholarly Publications, University of Queensland Library) which appears in Elsevier's latest LibraryConnect issue

From the introduction to Laura's Guide:
"In today’s digital world, if you use the web, you have an online presence. Online content is exploding; there were 1.8 trillion gigabytes of online information in 2011 and academics are part of that content.  Universities have web pages profiling their stats. Academic networks such as LinkedIn andAcademia.eduare used by researchers around the globe to keep in contact with colleagues and collaborators. In addition, social media are increasingly being used for purposes in addition to ‘social’. It is fair to say that academics want to make a difference;having an influence is almost a job requirement. Research and other outputs need to be found and read, and nowadays that means online. A searcher browsing a topic is likely to use what they find online rather than forage for more in the analogue world. Moreover someone looking for you personally is likely to accept what they find as the full story. This means that academics need to know what is already out there about them, whether they like what they see, and whether their work is actually ‘findable’at all....."

Does the Library have a role in scholarly communicaton?

Recent developments in scholarly communication: a review

This review article on recent developments in scholarly communication focuses on the content of three 2013 publications.

 

 

(Scholarly communication is defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries as ‘the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use’ (Association of College and Research Libraries))

Figshare for sharing academic papers with their datasets

Figshare seems to be gaining important in scholarly communication - here is a blogpost from a social scientist on how she uses it.


figshare is a repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner.

figshare allows users to upload any file format to be made visualisable in the browser so that figures, datasets, media, papers, posters, presentations and filesets can be disseminated in a way that the current scholarly publishing model does not allow.

The Structure of Scholarly Communications Within Academic Libraries

This article provides a brief review of the findings recently published in a SPEC Kit, which focuses on ARL Libraries. The main intention, though, is to provide a wider context of  *scholarly communication activities across a variety of academic libraries. To do that, a survey of non-ARL Libraries was administered to review relevant positions, library organizations, and the variety of scholarly communication services offered. Lastly, a set of scholarly communication core services is proposed.

Definitions from Wikipedia
*Scholarly communication is the process of academics, scholars and researchers sharing and publishing their research findings so that they are available to the wider academic community (such as university academics) and beyond.

*Scholarly communication is the creation, transformation, dissemination and preservation of knowledge related to teaching, research and scholarly endeavors. Among the many scholarly communications issues include author rights, the peer review process, the economics of scholarly resources, new models of publishing (including open access and institutional repositories), rights and access to federally funded research, and preservation of intellectual assets

Scholarly communication and information literacy (value of academic libraries)

"The integration of scholarly communication and information literacy has the potential to become a central element in demonstrating the value of academic libraries."

Just stumble upon the newish journal: Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication
and thought this article looked of interest
Time to Step on the Gas in Approaching the Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy

South African open access policy - a comparative overview

South African open access policy - a comparative overview

  Paper presented by Eve Gray at a Wits University research policy seminar on 9 November 2012. 

At the end of the day, the university signed the Berlin Declaration and announced that it would be adopting open access as a core component of its new research strategy."

Heather Joseph: Evaluating Scholarly Impact in Light of Emerging Models of Scholarly Communication

Well worth listening to!

The AU Library hosts Heather Joseph, Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), for a presentation on emerging trends in measuring scholarly impact, especially in relation to the open access movement. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system.

Easy paper collaboration for scientists

Launching very soon!

Mendeley: Teaching scholarly communication and collaboration through social networking ( Review )

Would anyone in the RU Library like to offer to investigate Mendeley (Debbie is presently testing Zotero)?

Purpose: This paper aims to highlight the productivity and collaborative features of Mendeley, a reference management tool, as well as recommendations on how Mendeley can be incorporated into an information literacy program. Design/methodology/approach: Results from a literature review and feedback from students and faculty were used to provide background for this paper. Mendeley's features and potential benefits to librarians and researchers are discussed. Findings: Feedback from students and faculty who use Mendeley are very positive owing to its productivity and social networking and collaboration features. The literature highlights Mendeley's usefulness in the context of citation management software. Practical implications: The paper provides useful tips and best practices for integrating Mendeley into information literacy sessions and workshops for students and faculty. The paper also discusses how teaching Mendeley can facilitate scholarly communication between researchers and broaden the role of librarians on campus. Originality/value: The paper shows that Mendeley enables higher level information literacy by helping users focus on locating and organizing information and spend less time on citation details. Mendeley's social networking features are compatible with emerging work practices, facilitating collaboration among researchers through group's functions and open sharing of information through groups and publication lists.

Changes in scholarly communication

New opportunities in scholarly communication - How the internet is transforming scholarship

What is Open Access? - What's in it for me?

Open Access, A2K & Scholarly Communication (LibGuide from Denise Nicholson at Wits)

This LibGuide provides useful information about the Open Access Movement, open access publishing and scholarly communication trends.

Associate editor of Elsevier journal resigns in protest over profit-making

"I can no longer work for a system that puts profit over access to research"

New open access title: Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication

The Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication seeks to share useful innovations, both in thought and in practice, with the aim of encouraging scholarly exchange and the subsequent benefits that are borne of scrutiny, experimentation and debate. As modes of scholarly communication, the technologies and economics of publishing and the roles of libraries evolve, it is our hope that the work shared in the journal will inform practices that strengthen librarianship and that increase access to the "common Stock of Knowledge."

An interesting article in the first issue: The Movement to Change ScholarlyCommunication Has Come a Long Way – HowFar Might It Go?