Post on 14-Apr-2017
Ben McLeishProduct Specialist
ben@altmetric.com@benmcleish
Digging for data: Opportunities and Challenges in an Open Research Landscape
An alternative,
more immediate measure of attention
From non-traditional
sources
To provide a larger context
What are altmetrics?
Not a replacement but a complement
Policy documents, blogs, mainstream news, social media
Providing a multi-faceted picture of engagement
Altmetric is a data science company that tracks attention to research outputs, delivering article level metrics via visually engaging, intuitive interfaces.
And we have been digging for data for a while.
Who are we?
What we look for
Research-Outputs
DOIs General
PubMed ID Medical/Health
arXiv ID Physics, Maths & Computer Science
ADS ID Astrophysis Data System
SSRN ID Social Sciences
RePEC ID Economics
Handles General
Where are we looking for data?
NEWS OUTLETS• Over 1,300 sites• Manually
curated list• Text mining• Global coverage
SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLOGS
Twitter, Facebook,
Google+, Sina Weibo
Public posts only8,000+ Blogs
REFERENCE MANAGERS
• Mendeley etc• Demographics
OTHERS…
YoutubeRedditF1000Q&A
Policy Documents…
POST PUBLICATIONPEER REVIEW
SITES
PublonsPubpeer
Policy documents as an essential source• ASHA Practice Policy • AWMF - Association of Scientific Medical Societies • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) • Food and Agriculture Organization • GOV.UK - Policy papers, Research & Analysis• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)• International Monetary Fund • (IMF) – (Tracking working papers)• Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF) • Mental Health Foundation (UK)• NICE Evidence • UNESCO • World Health Organization (WHO)• Australian Policy Online • The World Bank• International Fund for Agricultural Development• Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network
And more being added each week…
44K
online mentions of scholarly articles every day.
1 mention every 2 seconds!
50K unique articles are shared each week.
>3.5M
articles with tracked attention data.
The conversation is moving online..
Source: Altmetric internal data, March 2015
We collect it and put it all together.
The Donut: Colours change dynamically with attention
High traction across all sources
Strong news coverage
Strong Facebook And G+/Twitter traction
Impact at a Glance
Benchmarking Insights at Article Level
Insights at Institutional Level
“Tell me what’s being said about my research right now.”
Do you even know how to find out?
Is your institution or your work making the news?
Has your institutional Has your output influ-enced government policy?
How is the public engaging with your research?
Do you even know how to find out?
Is anyone getting it wrong? Are your marketing and communications offices
aware?
Copyright Randall Munrow, XKCD, http://xkcd.com/386/
What we do with this data• Aggregates output level metrics into
dashboards for:– Individual researchers– Departments or units within an
institution/Research Groups– subject areas– The entire institution– Customized groups that include data
external to the institution
What we do with this data• Streams mentions in real time• Sorts outputs by numerous filters:– Journal, publisher, funder, unique
identifier, PubMed query and more• Sets up alerts• Emails and exports reports• Facilitates benchmarking and
comparative analysis of groups
Here’s how Altmetric for Institutions can help you answer them….
Remember those questions?
What is happening to your research right now online?
Summary report tells you at a glance breaking mentions out by source…
Track attention over time
What is happening to your research right now online?
Summary report tells you at a glance breaking mentions out by source…
Track attention over time
Is your institution or your work making the news?
Has your institutional output influenced government policy?
Direct Link to Fulltext
How is the public engaging with your research?
Does the PR or Comms Department need to manage any online discussions?
Copyright Randall Munrow, XKCD, http://xkcd.com/386/Tweet, Retweet, Reply – Right in the Interface!
Funders want to see a “broader impact…”
“The primary aim of SEP assessments is to reveal and confirm the quality and the relevance of the research to society and to improve these where necessary.”https://www.knaw.nl/nl/actueel/publicaties/standard-evaluation-protocol-2015-2021
Funding pools drying up: Show me the (broader) impact!
Grant funders looking for proof of “broader impacts” often defined as “an effect, change, or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policies, health, the environment, etc.”
Research Excellence Framework, http://www.ref.ac.uk/panels/assessmentcriteriaandleveldefinitions/
Broaden dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding, for example, by presenting results of research and education projects in formats useful to students, scientists and engineers, members of Congress, teachers, and the general public.
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07046/nsf07046.jsp