Altmetrics
This lecture/presentation was the highlight in my master’s program the
reason behind was the fact that the presenter is a PHD student from University of the Western Cape S.A she deals
with Almetrics on a day to day basis. Ms Natasha Langdown presented a mind
opening and intriguing topic.Natasha is a Chief Information Officer at South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) her presentation was informed by the experiences at SAMRC, where she articulated and presented a practical evidence on how her colleagues were benefiting from this social media phenomenon.
To the librarians and Information specialists who have not developed any interest in the almetrics
subject allow me to take you through this journey of discovering the impact it
has towards your research life cycle.
“Almetrics is the creation and study of new metrics based
on the Social Web for analyzing, and informing scholarship.” Coined by Jason
Priem in 2010 in a tweet.
Impact analysis-determining scholarly value based on
engagement and impressions
Altmetrics proposes that citations are not only, or even
the best, technique for measuring impact, relative to the new ways scholarly
works move, grow and are shared.The video below elaborates further on how almetrics function.
Alternative metrics or altmetrics are indicators of impact and engagement with research that extend beyond traditional methods of influence measurement, such as citations. Altmetrics measure and surface attention to research in non-traditional sources such as news, blogs, policy documents and social media. Altmetrics are complementary to traditional forms of research evaluation, and help provide a more coherent, well-rounded understanding of the way in which research is being received and used in broader society. Altmetrics aren’t an alternative to traditional bibliometrics or peer review, but help tell another part of the story.
The following challenges have been identified within the field of Almetrics:
Alternative metrics or altmetrics are indicators of impact and engagement with research that extend beyond traditional methods of influence measurement, such as citations. Altmetrics measure and surface attention to research in non-traditional sources such as news, blogs, policy documents and social media. Altmetrics are complementary to traditional forms of research evaluation, and help provide a more coherent, well-rounded understanding of the way in which research is being received and used in broader society. Altmetrics aren’t an alternative to traditional bibliometrics or peer review, but help tell another part of the story.
The following challenges have been identified within the field of Almetrics:
- Lack of author identifiers (disambiguation)
- Low (or zero) metrics available for some items (Piwowar & Priem, 2012)
- Gaming (Abbott et al., 2010)
- Little adoption among traditional publishers, libraries, and university administrators.
- Social Media literacy
I think there is still more to be done in the area of almetrics since it is an emerging trend in librarianship and publishing as a whole. A good work Sipho for making the world know more about it.
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