Difference between revisions of "2013 The Future of Altmetrics"

Latest revision as of 13:59, 30 July 2013

What is next for measuring journal quality? The current system is limping along in the new digital environment, but cultures in the academy need to change, technology needs to change, and a determination about the level of human intervention needs to change. It will be important to review and vet new metrics as they arise, and to learn how impactful an article or journal is beyond what is typically accepted, such as acceptance rates and impact factor numbers. This is particularly important for niche journals, whose numbers may be low, but whose work is critically important to a very small field of scholars. Panelists will discuss how university presses can benefit from applying altmetrics to their business, even as the community continues to shape standards and best practices.

Co-Chairs: Katherine Purple, Production Editor, Purdue University Press

Jill Rodgers, Marketing Manager, MIT Press

Panelists: Euan Adie, Founder, Altmetric.com

Gregg Gordon, President & CEO, Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Wendy Queen, Associate Director, Project MUSE/Johns Hopkins University Press

Please feel free to add notes or responses to the session in this section. You can also post presentation files. Find out how.

"Project MUSE Altmetrics", Wendy Queen

[edit] Gregg Gordon, SSRN

• Note distinction between article-level metrics (usage, citations, social bookmarking) and ALTMETRICS (based on the social web for analysis)
• altmetrics is still new; what we don't know, we don't know
  • information overload or filter failure?
  • recommended reading: "Who Games SSRN Download Counts" by Benjamin G. Edelman and Ian Larkin
• how do we allow niche journals to be found amongst all the journals out there?

[edit] Euan Adie, Altmetric.com

• altmetrics track social media, mainstream media mentions, reference managers
• altmetrics provide quick, clear evidence that a paper has reached its intended audience
  • e.g. anti-malarial paper was spread via the web to international health organizations, NGOs, and activists on the ground in Kenya working to fight the spread of malaria; altmetrics is able to track that spread
• how do publishers fit in?
  • publishers hold and share the metadata for the content
  • altmetric.com and other altmetrics systems are dependent on clean (and existing) DOIs, need stable identifiers
  • publishers should make sure altmetric.com is tracking your journals
• reach of altmetrics continues to grow; gaining information like whose research is driving world bank policy and which journals are cited by NHS guidelines

[edit] Wendy Queen, Project MUSE

• top referrers to MUSE: historically and mostly Google; recently Wikipedia and Facebook climbing the rankings
• use of AddThis and social bookmarking features provide analytics data back to MUSE
• MUSE recently announced partnership with HighWire; additional pairings with ImpactStory.org and Altmetric.com
• we're still in the "Wild West" of altmetrics; publishers encouraged to get their feet wet and determine how they want to use the tools/data

[edit] ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• altmetrics: a manifesto
• Altmetric.com: We Make Article Level Metrics Easy
• ImpactStory.org: Share the full story of your research impact
• Plum Analytics: Measuring Research Impact
• altmetrics at Mendeley: The aim of this group is to discuss new approaches to the assessment of scholarly impact based on new metrics.
• PLOS Article Level Metrics: measuring the impact of research

[edit] MOVERS and SHAKERS

Join the conversation on #altmetrics; these folks are actively contributing to the conversation on Twitter:

• Monica McCormick (@moncia), Program Officer for Digital Scholarly Publishing, NYU Press
• Eric Zinner (@ericzinner), Assistant Director & Editor-in-Chief, NYU Press
• Allison Belan (@acbelan), Assistant Director for Digital Publishing, Duke University Press
• Ian Mulvany @IanMulvany, Head of Technology, eLife Sciences Publications
• Jason Priem @jasonpriem, Co-founder at ImpactStory.org
• Heather Piwowar @researchremix, Co-founder at ImpactStory.org
• Euan Adie @Stew, Founder of Altmetric.com
• Andrea Michalik @amichalek, Co-founder at Plum Analytics
• Stefanie Haustein @sh2106, altmetrics/scientometrics researcher
• Richard Cave @richardcave, Director of IT and Computer Operations, PLOS
• William Gunn @mrgunn, Head of Academic Outreach, Mendeley
• Elizabeth Lorbeer @lizlorbeer, Librarian, Western Michigan University School of Medicine

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