STI Conference 2016| Valencia

September 14-16, 2016

SSH & the City.

A network approach for tracing the societal

contribution of the Social Sciences and

Humanities for local development

Nicolas Robinson-Garcia, Thed N. van Leeuwen & Ismael Ràfols

Index

Rationale

Alternative frameworks

Towards a network approach

Some results

Discussion

EVALUATION SCHEMES address…

Rationale

1. Natural & Exact Sciences

2. Global Communities Internationalization

3. Scientific Impact

EVALUATION SCHEMES neglect…

Rationale

1. Social Sciences & Humanities

2. Local Communities

3. Societal Impact

Only socioeconomic and with limitations

The attribution problem

Researcher

Paper

Citation

Progress

SCIENTIFIC IMPACT

The attribution problem

Researcher

Paper?

Project?

????

Progress

SOCIETAL IMPACT

From impact to process

indicators

“The introduction of knowledge about the

process into assessment procedures will

also help us to understand how

(potential) social impact is being

achieved.”

Spaapen & Drooge, 2011

From impact to process

indicators

RESEARCH QUESTION

Can we identify these processes?

HYPOTHESIS

Social media as a way tracing interactions

between researchers and non-academics

From Impact to Process

Third Stream Metrics

Productive interactions

Knowledge Value Alliances

Theore

tical

fram

ew

ork

s

Third Stream Metrics

Molas-Gallart et al., 2002

University

Activities

Contractresearch

Collaborationnetworks

Capabilities

Patents Spin-offs

Productive interactions

SCIENCESOCIETY

Productive

interactions

Spaapen & Drooge, 2011

Productive interactions

Spaapen & Drooge, 2011

Direct interactions personal – email

Indirect interactions texts – artifacts

Financial interactions contracts - funding

Knowledge Value

Alliances

COLLECTIVE A

COLLECTIVE B

COLLECTIVE C

Knowledge Value

Alliances

Rogers & Bozeman, 2001

Towards a network

approach

Capabilities and activities

=

Nodes and flows

Towards a network

approach

1. Mutuals network of academic A 2. Levels of outreach

A

B

C

3. Characterised mutuals local network

LEGEND

A Global research network

B Local/global profesional network

C Local network

Node colours represent organisation to which a tweep belongs.

Twitter and other social media

Web-links

Contracts, spin-off, patents

Publications in Google Scholar

Publications in Scopus/WoS

More

local

More

glo

balS

cie

ntific

impact

Socie

tal

impact

Social media and

informal interactions

Web-link analysis

FAIL!

Social media and

informal interactions

The value of Twitter

Community building capacity

Combination between private and professional

interests

Escaping from the ‘publication-focused’

approach

Non-academics do not necessarily read papers

Some results

Edwin Horlings’ social community in Twitter

Some results

Edwin Horlings’ social community in Twitter

Geographical proximity

LOCAL

GLOBAL

Some results

Ludo Waltman’s social community in Twitter

Some results

Geographical proximity

LOCAL

GLOBAL

Ludo Waltman’s social community in Twitter

Measuring vs. mapping

Turning from ‘evaluative’ assessment to

‘strategic’ assessment

Usefulness as a policy tool?

Mapping as a first step/complement to

qualitative approaches

Indicators vs. Visualisations

Societal impact is difficult to grasp, social

engagement maybe a prior step towards it

Measuring vs. mapping

Where does social engagement takes

place?

• Finding the appropriate traces

There are many data restrictions and

limitations using social media

• Characterising users

• Levels of aggregation

Further steps

Analysis of social communities of scientists

using different data sources (LinkedIn, Google

Scholar…)

Cross-validation of the network

Overlaying discourse

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!

STI Conference 2016| Valencia

September 14-16, 2016

Thank you!Nicolas Robinson-Garcia, Thed N. van Leeuwen & Ismael Ràfols