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"How do I know thee? Let me count the cites..."

Mike Taylor

Elsevier Labs

http://labs.elsevier.com | @herrison2000

2012-06-28

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• As scholarly communication explodes and fragments, who will be the arbiter of good science?

• Will our hitherto internal metrics find a new life in the brave new world?

• Will there be a new currency of tweetation, linkage and nanoclaims?

• Or will indecision result in a defacto and proprietory ranking agency determining the common view of the scholarly universe?

Abstract

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• Growth of research• Fracturing of output• Increasing diversity of channels• Canonical Article / Journal under attack

Is there a problem?

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• Proprietary• Simplistic and over-generalizing• From a time when paper ruled• Can’t be accurately re-calculated from

‘outside’

Criticism of journal-level metrics

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• Is it the “open alternative” to proprietary interests?

• Does it predict citation count?• Does it measure “real world” impact?• Will it eliminate peer review?

What makes altmetrics interesting?

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• Web links• Mass media mentions• Tweets• Usage counts• Recommendations in reference managers

What is altmetrics anyway?

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• Data publishing and re-use• Workflow sharing• Authoring network analysis• Down-stream influence• Team development

Anything else?

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• No

Will it kill peer review?

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• No• Wrong type of data• Communities are too small

Will it kill peer review?

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• It can be, but it’s not essential• Total-impact – open• Altmetric.com – openish / commercialish• Plum Analytics – commercial• Google / Microsoft Academic – who can say

Is it open?

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• Possibly – research looks hopeful

Can altmetrics predict impact?

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• Yes• But does it mean anything?

Does altmetrics measure “whole world” impact?

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• Some of the terms are similar• But the rationale is different• There is no level playing field• Far more complicated• It’s not a popularity contest

Is altmetrics a specific form of web analytics?

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• Measure of success for a grad student is different from a senior industrial researcher

• Different fields have different cultures and different usage

• Different institutions want different things

How much more complicated?

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• But we don’t know what• And it keeps changing• We will use science to work it out

We know altmetrics means something

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• …Is the current state• …But we need more data• Research will let us make sense of the anarchy• Out of the wilderness will come products

An anarchy of data

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• One number does not fit all• One product will not work for all• There must be diversity• Common understanding of what the data

means• Commonwealth of data and research

Polemic!