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

Eileen ShepherdPrincipal Librarian

F lt Li i S iFaculty Liaison Services(Science & Pharmacy)

Rhodes University Library http://www.ru.ac.za/library/

Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, p ,25/09/2014

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This presentation endeavours

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

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Background

Traditional bibliometric methods of evaluating academic research

have beenhave beensupplemented in the past 5‐6 years

by the development of altmetricsaltmetrics

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

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

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Traditional bibliometric tools

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

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Enter : altmetrics

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 Webshared via the Web5

Do researchers use social media for research purposes?p p

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

Asked how researchers used social networks and/orAsked 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‐

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p // / /1.15711?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

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

61% 38%

48%40%

12%12%

12%22%

8% 8%%

5%

1%

4%

7

1%

How do scholars use Twitter professionally?

Reasons for using Twitter330 regular users from 3500330 regular users from 3500 

person survey

49% Follow discussion46% Post work42% Discover papers40% Discover peers40% Comment on research40% Comment on research36% 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 

li l d ld i fonline landscape could inform new, broader, faster measures ofnew, 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?

Has created and maintains a cluster of servers that watch social media sites, newspapers, government , p p , gpolicy 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 booksartifacts, including journal articles, books, 

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

and moreand more

Open‐source, web‐based tool that helps researchers explore and share the diverse impacts of all their research products

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Example of altmetrics

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Use of Altmetric bookmarklet

Bookmarkletin toolbarin toolbar

Altmetricstats

More details

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

More details – from previous slide

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Another example of Altmetric statistics for an articlefor 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 monthEnables librarians to monitor activitySelect perameters

Altmetric is also available by 

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Using DOIs, in this example subscription to Institutions

Another example: using keyword = coelacanth

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Altmetrics and publishers :e.g. Public Library of Scienceg y

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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

PlPlease encourage researchers to create a 

filprofile 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?What are we doing to raise research visibility?And why?

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Social media on the RU Library website

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

1. @RhodesResearch Twitter account – articles & conference

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papers are ‘tweeted’ regularly

2 S bj t l t d T itt t t t i f ti2. 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 with4. Subject blogs – monthly posting of research output with

links to articles/papers

5. Rhodes Library Facebook & Twitter - advertise the above

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1.@RhodesResearch :RULibrary Twitter account

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How is the research information sourced?

Mainly from alerts to

RU-affiliated research on: Some other sources:

Web of ScienceWeb of Science

Scopus• Academic Dept websites

• Rhodes University website

SAePublicationsRhodes University website

• GoogleScholar author alerts

EBSCOhost

ResearchGate

• Word of mouth

ResearchGate

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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 f ilit t dfacilitated by the fact that morethat more and more publishers 

are including ‘ h ’‘share’ 

options at article‐levelarticle level – makes it so much 

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easier

‘tweet’ - using suitable hashtags

l

Albany Museum #AlbanyMuseum

Biochemistry #RUBiochem

Biotech Innovation Centre (RUBIC) #RUBiotech#RUZoo ‐ example of standardised hashtag for

Biotech Innovation Centre (RUBIC) #RUBiotech

Botany #RUBotany

Chem #RUChem

ComSci #RUComSci

EBRU #RUEBRUhashtag for academic 

departments

Env Sci #RUEnvSci

Geography #RUGeography

Geology #RUGeology

HKE #RUHKEpIWR #RUIWR

Maths #RUMaths

Pharmacy #RUPharm

Physics #RUPhysics

Stats #RUStats

#tags for RU Science Depts

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Stats #RUStats

Zoo #RUZoo

Why use hashtags?

Sh iShowcasing Zoology Deptresearch:research:#RUZoo is used toused to retrieve all 

i l i harticles with this hashtag

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‘tweet’ – with the judicious use of hashtags #

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2. Subject-related RULibrary Twitter accounts

• RUAccountingNews • @RULGeology

• @RUBiochemNews

@RULMobileDevice• @RuRulis

• @RULMobileDevice

• @RUEducationnews• @RULawLibrary1

• @RULPharmNews• @RUEnglishNews

@E S iN

@RULPharmNews

• @RULPhysicsNews• @EnvSciNews

• @RUFineArtNews• @RULpolitics

@ i l 2• @RULgeog

• @sociologynews2

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Subject-related Twitter accounts – e.g. Pharmacy

https://twitter.com/RULPharmNews

@RULPharmNews‘Follows’ 

@RhodesResearchand then re‐tweets rele ant articlesrelevant articles, 

thus providing extra exposure to RU

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exposure to RU research

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 blogpublications on the Science & Pharmacy blog

htt // f b k /Rh d U i it Lib

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https://www.facebook.com/RhodesUniversityLibrary

5. Twitter : again highlighting RU publications

https://twitter.com/RhodesLibrary

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Reaction from Rhodes community

Typically Sometimes

• Polite interest

• Mild interest

• Mild enthusiasm

• Thanks for doing this• Mild interest

• Total disinterest

Thanks for doing this

• Retweeting

• Scepticism • Contributing research links

• Interest in usingInterest in using

(Environmental Science Dept)

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What to do!

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Experiment

Resulted in some

interestinginteresting responses

ffrom academics

101 Fantastic Quotes About Marketing. Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/fantastic‐marketing‐quotes‐2011‐9

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g q[Accessed September 22, 2014]. 

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

From: Eileen Shepherd [mailto:e.shepherd@ru.ac.za] Sent: 11 September 2014 11:16 AM To:To: ………………………………………

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

HiHi ………………..Thought you might like to see your article is featured 

@ h d hon @RhodesResearch https://twitter.com/RhodesResearchregardsEileen

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Response from historianFrom: …………………………………….Sent: 11 September 2014 11:20 AMTo: 'Eileen Shepherd'To: Eileen ShepherdSubject: RE: Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis

W h k V i i fWow, thank you. Very innovative of you guys. Keep it up.p p

From: Eileen Shepherd [mailto:e.shepherd@ru.ac.za] Sent: 11 September 2014 11:16 AMSent: 11 September 2014 11:16 AMTo:………………………..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

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Eileen

Another example, with response: Chemist

From: ………………….Sent: 28 August 2014 04:59 PMTo: Eileen ShepherdSubject: 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: …………….S 18 S b 2014 05 09 PMSent: 18 September 2014 05:09 PMTo: Eileen ShepherdS bj h Rh dSubject: another Rhodes paper

N d b hi ill h i lNo doubt this will show up in your regular searches: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471‐2164/15/7522164/15/752‐‐[ h i ][researcher in] …………………………..Dept of Computer Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown6140 S th Af i

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6140, South Africa

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 havepass on interesting tweets that you have 

read with your followers.”

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Interest in @RhodesResearch

270 f ll• 270 followers • Fair number are Rhodes studentsFair number are Rhodes students• A few Rhodes University academics• 77 re‐tweets• Many professional/research• Many professional/research 

organisationsg

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

@CSIR@ResearchAfrica@SAYAS_SA South African Young Academy of Science

/ ( )50/50 (TV programme)AcademyofScienceSA

( f l h )ACEP (African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme) Ageing and Society (USA) Exploring issues of aging…

f d kBio‐Resource Center scientific resources and networking

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

Brock Bersaglio PhD Geography, Univ of TorontoCanadianScience PubCG Publishing (USA) academic publishing house g ( ) p gDalton Transactions (RSC Chemistry journal)Dennis A V Dittrich (German economics Prof )Dennis A V  Dittrich (German economics Prof.)EduCentralResearchSAELIDZ STP R&D f ilitiELIDZ STP R&D facilities

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

Ezemvelo Science KZN WildlifeEzemvelo Science KZN WildlifeFlashmob Science (popular science site UK/SA)HSP70 Resource GuideHSP70 Resource Guide@ISSFKareproducts (ergonomics company)Kareproducts (ergonomics company)MDPI – (publisher) Mine Closure 2014: 9th International Conference…Mine Closure 0 4: 9th International Conference…MY Angra Pequena (research yacht – W Indian Ocean)

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Examples of @RhodesResearch ‘retweeters’

Rhodes Journalism and Media StudiesRhodes Journalism and Media StudiesSarah Wild Mail &Guardian Science editorS iB i (S i i SA)SciBraai – (Science in SA)@SAStatsThe Learner (USA) To foster inquiry, invite dialogue… WomenInScienceSAYvonne Perrie (Prof:Drug Delivery, Aston Univ.)

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Finally, some reflections regarding @RhodesResearch@

• Is it worth continuing? • Time-consuming

• Yes • An added dimension

to job responsibilities• Engagement with to job responsibilities

• Interestingresearch &

researchers

• Interesting

• Stimulatingresearchers Stimulating

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Altmetrics – should librarians be involved?

“Altmetrics are a natural extension of what libraries and

librarians already do”

“Knowledge of altmetrics is central to the role of anKnowledge of altmetrics is central to the role of an

academic librarian”• Connecting people with information• 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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• Researcher support – funding, promotion, etc.

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-f t i /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/74/6/292generation 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

Pi H 2013 Alt t i V l ll h d t N t 493(7431) 159 159 htt //0Piwowar, 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

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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