Research-Open Access-Social Media

A winning combination

More visibility

Higher impact

Eileen ShepherdPrincipal Librarian : Faculty Liaison Services

Science & Pharmacy

Rhodes University Library

Grahamstown, South Africa

e.shepherd@ru.ac.za

Open Access Week Symposium

Rhodes University

21 October 2014

This presentation endeavours to:

to show that “social media and open access [are] a great couple”*

to provide a brief introduction to altmetrics – a non-traditional form of measuring scholarly impact

to demonstrate the use of social media in raising awareness and visibility of Rhodes University research

*Open access and social media: helping science move forwards. Evidently Cochrane. Available at: http://tinyurl.com/pftvx5h

Traditional bibliometric methods

of evaluating academic researchCitations

h-indicesA scholar with an h-index of 18 has

published 18 papers each of which has

been cited in other papers at least 18

times

Journal Impact FactorsIn any given year, the impact factor of a

journal is the average number of

citations received per paper published

in that journal during the two preceding

years

supplemented in the

past 5-6 years

by the development

of altmetrics

i.e.(alternative

metrics or article

level metrics)

“The creation and

study of new metrics

based on the Social

Web for analyzing and

informing scholarship”

http://altmetrics.org/about/

Traditional bibliometrics have been

Do / should / will social media

feature in academia?

Social media

and

scholarly communication?

“…….. Web 2.0 applications will have an increasing

role in the scholarly communication process. While

research shows that take up in academia is at a

relatively low level (although at least two UK-based

Vice Chancellors now have a Twitter following),

many publishers are providing wiki-based forums for

specific journals or disciplines facilitating discussion

on, and sharing of, research findings…”

Woodward, H. (2010) Dissemination Models in Scholarly

Communication, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 16:S1, 1-3,

DOI:0.1080/13614533.2010.514763

Do academics use social media in the

course of their research? : Survey Results

“Giant academic social networks have taken off

to a degree that no one expected

even a few years ago*

Survey asked how researchers used social networks and/or

profile-hosting or search services

Received: 3,500 responses from 95 countries

*Van Noorden, R., 2014. Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network. Nature, 512(7513), pp.126–129. Available at: http://tinyurl.com/lo3fgn4

8Sites in order of popularity

with researchers (330 regular visitors)

61%

1%

12%

48%

8%

8%12%

40%

38%

22%

4%

5%

Van Noorden, R., 2014. Online

collaboration: Scientists and the social

network. Nature, 512(7513), pp.126–129.

Available at: http://tinyurl.com/lo3fgn4

9

Scholarly use of Twitter

Reasons for using

Twitter330 regular users from

3500 respondents

49% Follow discussion

46% To post work

42% Discover papers

40% Discover peers

40% Comment on research

36% Share links to content

From ‘Nature’ survey

Due to the increasing variety of online references to research, and also of tools for sharing research…

A confusing array of social media choices:

C

How do we measure impact and how is research

communicated & shared via the Web?

New tools needed to measure10

Enter : altmetrics

new approach to determining quality/popularity of research

value can be assessed by tallying shares, saves, reviews, adaptations & social media usage

no longer a FAD

shows impact of research outside of the academy

limitations? need to develop a way to differentiate between scholarly & sexy research ; vulnerable to gaming

databases & publishers: incorporation of altmetrics in search results

Konkiel, S., 2013. Altmetrics : A 21st-Century Solution to Determining Research Quality. (Cover story). Online Searcher, 37(4), pp.11–15. Available at: http://tinyurl.com/lrvlu6g

Origin of the term: altmetrics

Who is collecting & sharing altmetrics?

A cluster of servers that watch social media

sites, newspapers, government policy

documents and other sources for mentions

of scholarly articles. Brings all the attention

together to compile article level metrics

http://www.altmetric.com/

Tracks more than 20 different types of

artifacts, including journal articles, books,

videos, presentations, conference

proceedings, datasets, source code,

cases, and more

http://www.plumanalytics.com/

Open-source, web-based tool that helps

researchers explore and share the diverse

impacts of all their research products

https://impactstory.org/

14

Example of altmetrics

Use of Altmetric bookmarklet15

Altmetric

stats

Click for

more

detailsGet this bookmarklet for your toolbar

http://www.altmetric.com/bookmarklet.php

Bookmarklet

in toolbar

More details – from previous slide

Another example of altmetrics in action

Note the “Article metrics”

option on the Nature

webpage

Article metrics – from Nature webpage

Altmetrics data for article – accessed by

using altmetrics bookmarklet

Example using an article

indexed on Scopus

Scopus now includes

Altmetrics at article level

Article indexed on Scopus – embedded

Altmetric details

Embedded Altmetrics on Scopus :

the details

Register

for email

updates

when this

article is

shared

Altmetrics demographics for article

and Mendeley readers : details

Same article on Mendeley

More about

Impressive support base

US$500,000 grant

from Sloan Foundation

28

Example of an ImpactStory profile

NB Register for your own ImpactStory profile

https://impactstory.org/

Beyond the traditional

Social media ‘stats’:

what do/could they offer?

Provide evidence that

relevant communities are

aware of a specific paper

Provide evidence that a

relatively under cited

paper is having a research

impact

Provide evidence of public

interest in…

Indicate a pathway for

research to reach a wide

range of audiences

Compare readership of

articles across countries

Compare communities

discussing articles -

science communicators,

researchers, policy

makers, practitioner

communities…Neylon, C., (2014) Altmetrics can signal flows of information for paths in scholarly communication not yet mapped. Impact of Social

Sciences. Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/10/07/altmetrics-what-are-they-good-for/

Future of altmetrics?

…[these] numbers …are signals of the flow of

information down paths that we haven’t mapped.

• most exciting possibility…only just starting to

explore.

• who is using that information?

• correlation analysis can’t tell us this, but more

sophisticated approaches might

• with that information …could design scholarly

communication systems to maximise their reach,

value and efficiency

Neylon, C., (2014) Altmetrics can signal flows of information for paths in scholarly communication not yet mapped. Impact of Social

Sciences. Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/10/07/altmetrics-what-are-they-good-for/

Open Access + Social Media

= Competitive Advantage

How can open access outperform its tenacious, institutionalized competition, the traditional top-tier

journals?

Perhaps through its intimate relationship with social media.

Blogging, tweeting, publicly discussing research > benefits for scientists, journals, and even society, > increased

debate and transparency

Tabor, A., (2012) Open Access + Social Media = Competitive Advantage. http://tinyurl.com/pqrv4ds

James Balm, Social Media Assistant

BioMed Central

combining research & social media to deliver a message that is accessible to everyone and make science exciting

draw significant attention to [specific] research papers

Facebook and Twitter, help bring approximately 25,000 visitors to BioMed Central research papers per month

engage / discuss important issues that affect the science community and to discuss new research, its quality and validity

*Open access and social media: helping science move forwards. Evidently Cochrane. Available at: http://tinyurl.com/pftvx5h

Recent Altmetrics conference in

London sponsored by Wellcome Trust

Presentations and review of conference:

http://tinyurl.com/ovfjods

http://tinyurl.com/palxkqk

Worth a visit

ScienceDirect – “social media” featured in

top 25 downloads in 2nd quarter of 2014

Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social

Media Business Horizons, Volume 53, Issue 1, January 2010, Pages

59-68 Kaplan, Andreas M.; Haenlein, Michael

Most downloads

Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix •

Business Horizons, Volume 52, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 357-365

Mangold, W. Glynn; Faulds, David J.

3rd highest downloads

Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building

blocks of social media Business Horizons, Volume 54, Issue 3, May

2011, Pages 241-251 Kietzmann, Jan H.; Hermkens, Kristopher;

McCarthy, Ian P.; Silvestre, Bruno S.

7th highest downloads

Social media in academia?

So what! Why should I care?

I DON’T HAVE

TIME FOR THIS

I’LL PASS ON THIS ONE

Practical example of the use of

social media in an academic

context in order to highlight

research output

How are Rhodes University

librarians using social media

to raise research visibility?

http://www.ru.ac.za/library/

Putting it together

@RhodesResearch Twitter account – articles, conference papers, theses, reports of research, etc. are tweeted regularly

These are re-tweeted on subject-related Twitter accounts

which are embedded in our Subject LibGuides – increase visibility

Subject blogs – monthly posting of research (presently Science & Pharmacy) output with links to articles/papers

which Rhodes Library Facebook & Twitter then advertise

@RhodesResearch - Twitter account

https://twitter.com/RhodesResearch

Initiated as an

experiment

in May 2013: with

sole purpose of

promoting Rhodes

research output

Alerts to Rhodes-

affiliated research:Other sources:

How is Rhodes research information

sourced by librarians?

Web of Science

Scopus

EBSCOhost

Sabinet

ResearchGate

SAePublications

Academic department

websites & researchers

Rhodes University webpage

Media

Word of mouth

GoogleScholar author alerts

Article on publisher’s site

Use the DOI in the Twitter link to the article

Publisher’s website : “Share” options

Sharing is

facilitated by

the fact that

more and more

publishers are

including

‘share’ options

at article-level

– makes it so

much easier

Say it with a #hashtag!

Make your Tweets more visible

. Albany Museum #AlbanyMuseum

Biochemistry #RUBiochem

Biotech Innovation Centre

(RUBIC)#RUBiotech

Botany #RUBotany

Chem #RUChem

ComSci #RUComSci

EBRU #RUEBRU

Env Sci #RUEnvSci

Geography #RUGeography

Geology #RUGeology

HKE #RUHKE

IWR #RUIWR

Maths #RUMaths

Pharmacy #RUPharm

Physics #RUPhysics

Stats #RUStats

Zoo #RUZoo

#RUIWR- example of

standardised hashtag

for academic

departments

#tags for RU Science Depts

@RUBiochemnews follows

@RhodesResearch

Retweets from @RhodesResearch

@RULPharmNews follows

@RhodesResearch

@RULPharmNews

‘Follows’

@RhodesResearch

and re-tweets

relevant articles,

thus providing extra

exposure to RU

pharmacy research

Embedded ‘tweets’ in the

Pharmacy Subject Guide

Tweets appear

automatically in the

embedded RULPharmNews

twitter account

Faculty blogs post

monthly list of Rhodes research

http://rulscipharm.blogspot.com/

Rhodes Library Facebook page:

Advertising Rhodes Research

https://www.facebook.com/

RhodesUniversityLibrary

Rhodes Library Twitter site:

Advertising Rhodes Research

Interest in @RhodesResearch

288 followers ( as at 20 Oct 2014)

Rhodes students

About 20 Rhodes academics & support staff

Professional & Research organisations

Publishers / journal editors

Journalists / media organisations

Academic librarians (non-Rhodes)

Individuals (other than Rhodes students & staff)

@RhodesResearch followers:

Research & other organisations

No of followers

@EzemveloScience KZN wildlife (572)

@HSP_70 Scientific Resource (18)

@CSIR Council Science SA (2710)

@ASSAf_Official (179)

@SAPECS_TWEETS social-ecological systems (48)

@FormularyIE Irish Medicines (598)

@OWSD_SA Women in Science (75)

@ISSF sustainable tuna fishing (4620)

@GreenMatterZA environmental (347)

@GreenLeagueZA environmental (118)

@SAStats (4458)

@RhodesResearch followers:

Research & other organisations

No. of followers

@Research Africa Research funding (439)

@SAYAS_SA Young Academy of Science (139)

@ASSAf_Official Academy of Science SA (179)

@ACEP_ZA Coelacanth programme (256)

@agingandsociety US aging research (173)

@NHLSBRC Bio-Resource Center (3)

@ELIDZSTP1R&D facilities (26)

@eoth_moz community-based conservation (592)

@EiffelCorpSA educational technology (17)

@prospectpredict business development USA (635)

@DorringtonResGr microbiologists (20)

@SASBi_Bioinf Society for Bioinformatics (132)

@RhodesResearch followers:

Publishers, journal editors, media

No of followers

@SasjaSA SA Science Journalists' Association (475)

@Rhodes_JMS Rhodes School of Journalism (586)

@Ecquid_Novi African Journalism Studies (145)

@TheJournalistSA Context & history for key issues (454)

@alphagalileo breaking research news - London (2656)

@Awesomelastus journalist – Zambia (637)

@struandouglas freelance journalist (82)

@MakanaEdutouris promotes travel for learning (167)

@SciBraai features: SA research-technology-innovation (659)

@hwasser Prof of Media Studies – UCT (2094)

@RhodesResearch followers:

Publishers, journal editors, media

No of followers

@cdnsciencepub scientific & technical journals (2562)

@CG_Publishing academic publishers – Illinois, USA (99)

@SAJS_Official SA Journal of Science (108)

@sarahemilywild Science editor, Mail & Guardian (2592)

@Steven_Lang journalist (260)

Dalton Transactions Royal Soc Chem journal (2270)

@Grocotts local newspaper (2180)

@mishsolomon freelance journalist – Johannesburg (3817)

@scientist_kenni Science Communicator – Cape Town (327)

@RhodesResearch followers:

Individuals – a selectionNo of followers

@Anneke1976 Programme Dir. Amsterdam Fringe Festival (925)

@brocksaglio Canadian academic (Geography) (205)

@pat_loria Academic library director (359)

@RickMavrovich Global Executive Strategist (2920)

@CazV7776 social worker (94)

@JustinBlakeZA marine biologist (291)

@kveerubhotla Pharmacist – India (14)

@Morgs_John Scientist – Cape Town (39)

@SarahGoodier open access proponent - UCT (784)

@CarolineDean academic librarian – UCT (96)

@gsulc UCT academic & education writer (220)

@schwarzwild1 communications specialist – Germany (119)

@BonnieAgea researcher, writer, commentator – Tanzania (180)

26 Rhodes University academics / support staff

From research alert to the world!

“The retweet is one of the most commonly used tools

on Twitter, and is a great way to pass on interesting

tweets that you have read [to] your followers.”

Twitonomy site: retweets from

@RhodesResearch

http://twitonomy.com/

Twitter Analytics of Followers

https://analytics.twitter.com/about

Reaction from

Rhodes University community

Polite interest

Mild interest

Total disinterest

Faint enthusiasm

Scepticism

Implied ridicule

Thanks for doing this

Retweeting of tweets

Research items for

tweeting

Interest in using for

Department

Resulted in some

interesting

responses from

academics

Alerting researchers to the use of

Twitter to highlight their researchFrom: Eileen Shepherd [mailto:e.shepherd@ru.ac.za]

Sent: 11 September 2014 11:16 AM

To: ………………………………………

Subject: Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis

Hi ………………..

Thought you might like to see your article is

featured on @RhodesResearchhttps://twitter.com/RhodesResearchregards

Eileen

Response from historianFrom: …………………………………….

Sent: 11 September 2014 11:20 AM

To: 'Eileen Shepherd'

Subject: RE: Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis

Wow, thank you. Very innovative of you

guys. Keep it up.

From: Eileen Shepherd [mailto:e.shepherd@ru.ac.za]

Sent: 11 September 2014 11:16 AM

To:………………………..

Subject: Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis

Hi …………………….

Thought you might like to see your article is featured on

@RhodesResearch https://twitter.com/RhodesResearch

Regards

Eileen

Another example, with response:

Chemist

From: ………………….

Sent: 28 August 2014 04:59 PM

To: Eileen Shepherd

Subject: Re: MRSA pyruvate kinase inhibitory activity of synthetically derived thiazole

containing deoxytopsentin analogues

Thanks so much Eileen, this is quite exciting!Kind Regards,

………………On Thu, 2014-08-28 at 11:57 +0200, Eileen Shepherd wrote:

> Hi ……………………. >

> Thought you might like to know your article is featured on

> @RhodesResearch https://twitter.com/RhodesResearch>

Some reflections regarding

@RhodesResearch experiment

Is it worth continuing?

Yes

Enhanced engagement with research & researchers

Time-consuming

An added dimension to job responsibilities

But interesting

And stimulating

Provided an opportunity to engage with developing field of altmetrics

ReferencesBalm, J., 2014. Open access and social media: helping science move forward. Evidently Cochrane.

http://www.evidentlycochrane.net/open-access-social-media-can-help-science-move-forwards/

Gunasekaran, S. & Arunachalam, S., 2014. The impact factors of open access and subscription journals

across fields. Current Science, 107(3), pp.380–388.

http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/107/03/0380.pdf

Hitchcock, T., 2014. Twitter and blogs are not add-ons to academic research, but a simple reflection of

the passion that underpins it. Impact of Social Sciences.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/07/28/twitter-and-blogs-academic-public-sphere/

Konkiel, S.P., 2014. The Imperative for Open Altmetrics. Journal of Electronic Publishing, 17(3).

Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0017.301

Macpherson, E., 2014. Four things policy-makers need to know about social media data and real time

analytics. Impact of Social Sciences. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/08/01/four-

things-on-social-media-data-for-policymakers/

Neylon, C., 2014. Altmetrics: What are they good for? | PLOS Opens.

http://blogs.plos.org/opens/2014/10/03/altmetrics-what-are-they-good-for/

Tabor, A. 2012. Open Access + Social Media = Competitive Advantage.

https://www.mysciencework.com/news/6350/open-access-social-media-competitive-advantage

Wing, K., 2014. Scientists across disciplines must get to a better agreement on social media metrics.

Impact of Social Sciences. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/09/29/what-are-scientists-

doing-on-twitter/

Woolman, J. 2014. Social media outcomes in academia: engage with your audience and they will

engage with you. Impact of Social Sciences.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/09/24/social-media-outcomes-academia/

Thank you for listening!

Please Follow @RhodesResearch

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