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Joining the ‘buzz’ : the role of social media in raising research visibility

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Eileen Shepherd

Principal Librarian Faculty Liaison Services (Science & Pharmacy)

Rhodes University Library

http://www.ru.ac.za/library/ Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa

25/09/2014

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This presentation endeavours

o to provide a brief introduction to o to demonstrate how Rhodes librarians are using

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Background

Traditional bibliometric methods of evaluating academic research

have been supplemented in the past 5-6 years

by the development of altmetrics

(alternative metrics/article level metrics) “The creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for

analyzing, and informing scholarship” http://altmetrics.org/about/

Citations, h-indices* and Journal Impact Factors** *a scholar with an h-index of 18 has published 18 papers each of which

has been cited in other papers at least 18 times

**In 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

Traditional bibliometric tools

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Increasing variety of online references to

research and of tools for sharing research…

need for new tools to measure and understand research impact and the ways in which research is communicated &

shared via the Web

Enter : altmetrics

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Do researchers use social media for research purposes?

“Giant academic social networks have taken off to a degree that no one expected even a few years ago”.

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://www.nature.com/news/online-collaboration-scientists-and-the-social-network-

1.15711?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

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Sites/networks in order of popularity with researchers (visit regularly)

61%

1%

12%

48%

8% 8%

12%

40%

38%

22%

4%

5%

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How do scholars use Twitter professionally?

Reasons for using Twitter 330 regular users from 3500

person survey

49% Follow discussion 46% Post work 42% Discover papers 40% Discover peers 40% Comment on research 36% Share links to content

From ‘Nature’ survey

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Origin of the term: altmetrics

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Why use altmetrics?

“….tracking mentions of scholarly articles across [the] expanding online landscape could inform new, broader, faster measures of impact, complementing traditional citation metrics”

Holbrook, J.B., Altmetrics in the Wild: Using Social Media to Explore Scholarly Impact – altmetrics.org. Available at: http://altmetrics.org/altmetrics12/priem/ [Accessed September 2, 2014]

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Who is collecting and sharing altmetrics?

Open-source, web-based tool that helps researchers explore and share the diverse

impacts of all their research products

Has created and maintains 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

Tracks more than 20 different types of artifacts, including journal articles, books,

videos, presentations, conference proceedings, datasets, source code, cases,

and more

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Example of altmetrics

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Use of Altmetric bookmarklet

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Bookmarklet in toolbar

Altmetric stats

More details

Get this bookmarklet for your toolbar http://www.altmetric.com/bookmarklet.php

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More details – from previous slide

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Another example of Altmetric statistics for an article

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Demographics for ‘tweeeting’ of this article

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Altmetrics bookmarklet stats – another example

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Altmetric Explorer – free accounts for Librarians

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

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Social media mentions for articles in past month Enables librarians to

monitor activity

Using DOIs, in this example Altmetric is also available by subscription to Institutions

Select perameters

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Another example: using keyword = coelacanth

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Altmetrics and publishers : e.g. Public Library of Science

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PLOS also takes account of altmetrics

@RhodesResearch (and other) tweets are archived on PLOS

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More about

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Impressive support base

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Beyond the traditional

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Example of an ImpactStory profile

Please encourage researchers to create a profile https://impactstory.org/

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Rhodes University Library (RULibrary)

http://www.ru.ac.za/library/ What are we doing to raise research visibility?

And why?

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Social media on the RU Library website

1. @RhodesResearch Twitter account – articles & conference papers are ‘tweeted’ regularly

2. Subject-related Twitter accounts re-tweet information

3. Embedded subject-related Twitter accounts in Subject LibGuides – increase visibility

4. Subject blogs – monthly posting of research output with links to articles/papers

5. Rhodes Library Facebook & Twitter - advertise the above

Rhodes Library: using social media to raise research visibility – how?

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1.@RhodesResearch :RULibrary Twitter account

Mainly from alerts to

RU-affiliated research on: Some other sources:

How is the research information sourced?

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Web of Science

Scopus

SAePublications

EBSCOhost

ResearchGate

• Academic Dept websites

• Rhodes University website

• GoogleScholar author alerts

• Word of mouth

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Web of Science RU affiliated article alert

Example of an email alert

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Article on publisher’s site

Use the DOI in the Twitter link to the article

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Article is ‘tweeted’ on @RhodesResearch

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Publisher’s website – with “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

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‘tweet’ - using suitable hashtags

#RUZoo - example of standardised

hashtag for academic

departments

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

#tags for RU Science Depts

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Why use hashtags?

Showcasing Zoology Dept research: #RUZoo is used to retrieve all articles with this hashtag

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‘tweet’ – with the judicious use of hashtags #

• RUAccountingNews

• @RUBiochemNews

• @RULMobileDevice

• @RUEducationnews

• @RUEnglishNews

• @EnvSciNews

• @RUFineArtNews

• @RULgeog

• @RULGeology

• @RuRulis

• @RULawLibrary1

• @RULPharmNews

• @RULPhysicsNews

• @RULpolitics

• @sociologynews2

2. Subject-related RULibrary Twitter accounts

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Subject-related Twitter accounts – e.g. Pharmacy

@RULPharmNews ‘Follows’

@RhodesResearch and then re-tweets

relevant articles, thus providing extra

exposure to RU research

https://twitter.com/RULPharmNews

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3. Embedded ‘tweets’ in the Pharmacy LibGuide

These embedded tweets appear on the Pharmacy

Twitter account where they have been ‘re-tweeted’ from

@RhodesResearch

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4. Faculty blogs

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Faculty blogs: monthly list of publications

http://rulscipharm.blogspot.com/

http://rulscipharm.blogspot.com/

Hyperlinks to articles

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5. Facebook post : link to list of RU publications on the Science & Pharmacy blog

https://www.facebook.com/RhodesUniversityLibrary

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5. Twitter : again highlighting RU publications

https://twitter.com/RhodesLibrary

Typically Sometimes

Reaction from Rhodes community

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• Polite interest

• Mild interest

• Total disinterest

• Scepticism

• Mild enthusiasm

• Thanks for doing this

• Retweeting

• Contributing research links

• Interest in using

(Environmental Science Dept)

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What to do!

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Experiment

101 Fantastic Quotes About Marketing. Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/fantastic-marketing-quotes-2011-9 [Accessed September 22, 2014].

Resulted in some

interesting responses

from academics

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Alerting researchers to the use of Twitter to raise their research profiles

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

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Response from historian From: ……………………………………. 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

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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 >

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Some researchers are sending their papers for inclusion

From: ……………. Sent: 18 September 2014 05:09 PM To: Eileen Shepherd Subject: another Rhodes paper No doubt this will show up in your regular searches: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/752 -- [researcher in] ………………………….. Dept of Computer Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa

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The personal touch

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So what!

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“followers” and “re-tweeters”?

“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 with your followers.”

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Interest in @RhodesResearch

• 270 followers • Fair number are Rhodes students • A few Rhodes University academics • 77 re-tweets • Many professional/research

organisations

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Examples of @RhodesResearch ‘followers’ and/or‘retweeters’

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@CSIR @ResearchAfrica @SAYAS_SA South African Young Academy of Science 50/50 (TV programme) AcademyofScienceSA ACEP (African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme) Ageing and Society (USA) Exploring issues of aging… Bio-Resource Center scientific resources and networking

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Examples of @RhodesResearch ‘followers’ and/or‘retweeters’

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Brock Bersaglio PhD Geography, Univ of Toronto CanadianScience Pub CG Publishing (USA) academic publishing house Dalton Transactions (RSC Chemistry journal) Dennis A V Dittrich (German economics Prof.) EduCentralResearchSA ELIDZ STP R&D facilities

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Examples of @RhodesResearch ‘followers’ and/or‘retweeters’

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Ezemvelo Science KZN Wildlife Flashmob Science (popular science site UK/SA) HSP70 Resource Guide @ISSF Kareproducts (ergonomics company) MDPI – (publisher) Mine Closure 2014: 9th International Conference… MY Angra Pequena (research yacht – W Indian Ocean)

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Examples of @RhodesResearch ‘retweeters’

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Rhodes Journalism and Media Studies Sarah Wild Mail &Guardian Science editor SciBraai – (Science in SA) @SAStats The Learner (USA) To foster inquiry, invite dialogue… WomenInScienceSA Yvonne Perrie (Prof:Drug Delivery, Aston Univ.)

• Is it worth continuing?

• Yes

• Enhanced engagement with research & researchers

• Time-consuming

• An added dimension

to job responsibilities

• But interesting

• And stimulating

Finally, some reflections regarding @RhodesResearch

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“Altmetrics are a natural extension of what libraries and

librarians already do”

“Knowledge of altmetrics is central to the role of an

academic librarian”

Altmetrics – should librarians be involved?

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• Connecting people with information

• Usage stats

• Tracking user behaviour

• Spotting trends

• Help researchers understand & manipulate impact

• Researcher support – funding, promotion, etc.

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Useful references Anon, Open Science & Altmetrics Monthly Roundup (June 2014). Impactstory blog. http://blog.impactstory.org/june-2014-roundup/ Arildsen, Thomas.. Altmetrics – fancy feature or peer review’s successor? Open Science. http://openscience.com/altmetrics-fancy-feature-or-peer-reviews-successor/ Bik, H.M. & Goldstein, M.C., 2013. An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists. PLoS Biol, 11(4), p.e1001535. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001535 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2013.829762 Holbrook, J.B., Altmetrics in the Wild: Using Social Media to Explore Scholarly Impact – altmetrics.org. http://altmetrics.org/altmetrics12/priem/ Lapinski, S., Piwowar, H. & Priem, J., 2013. Riding the crest of the altmetrics wave How librarians can help prepare faculty for the next generation of research impact metrics. College & Research Libraries News, 74(6), pp.292–300. http://crln.acrl.org/content/74/6/292 Moriano, P. et al., 2014. Dissemination of scholarly literature in social media. http://figshare.com/articles/Dissemination_of_scholarly_literature_in_social_media/1035127 Piwowar, H., 2013. Altmetrics: Value all research products. Nature, 493(7431), pp.159–159. http://0-www.nature.com.wam.seals.ac.za/nature/journal/v493/n7431/full/493159a.html Priem, J., Groth, P., Taraborelli, D. (2012), The Altmetrics Collection, PLOS One7(11):.http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048753 Strasser, C. Universities can improve academic services through wider recognition of altmetrics and alt-products. Impact of Social Sciences. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/10/15/universities-can-improve-academic-services-through-altmetrics/ Van Noorden, R., 2014. Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network. Nature, 512(7513), pp.126–129. http://www.nature.com/news/online-collaboration-scientists-and-the-social-network-1.15711?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

Thank you for listening

Contact details:

e.shepherd@ru.ac.za