Metrics: The New Black?

Metrics:The New Black? Kristen Fisher Ratan NFAIS 2012

The web is getting personal

Can Web Metrics Indicate Research Impact?

Metrics:The New Black? Kristen Fisher Ratan NFAIS 2012

Research Dissemination IS Research Impact

Dissemination creates indicatorsof impact Publication DisseminationArticle Level • Citations • Web usageMetrics (ALMs) • Star Ratings • Social bookmarking • Community rating • Media/blog coverage • Commenting activity • and more…

ALMs: Two Traditional Use Cases Author Researcher/Writer/Journalist Self-Metrics Research & Discovery Measure the impact and reach of Gauge value of any article with their work post-publication peer review Benchmark article performance Conduct custom searches that against others account for research impact Collect relevant articles and Evaluate publication decisions to organize based upon array of maximize the impact of their work criteria Gain insight into article’s impact Understand readership within context of related research Communicate impact of research to Analyze trends/behaviors across a employers, funders, potential database of academic literature collaborators The Third? Meta-analysis using large datasets of ALMs

Beyond the Article

Usage isn’t always indicative 1595 Tweets

Inside the Article

Powerpoint download feature inadvertently tracked sub-article usage

New feature may be able to track cut/paste activities

To Measure is to Know

Let’s get tracking• Cut/paste• Figures opened, downloaded• Links clicked• Time spent on article page• Supplemental info viewed• Authors’ info viewed• Pathways that info travels• ALMs viewed and used To understand true use of context

What Might Data Drive?• Tenure and promotion• Grants• Reputation• Discovery• Prioritization $ Attention: the new currency

Caveats and concerns• Missed citation data• Data sources aren’t reliable• Digital addresses change• Usage doesn’t mean useful• Deliberate gaming• Context

Next: Context-Mining

Thank You!Kristen Fisher Ratan kratan@plos.org

http://dev.local	6
https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net	2
http://www.linkedin.com	2
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	1
http://paper.li	1

Metrics: The New Black?

by Kristen Fisher Ratan on Mar 02, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

5 Embeds 12

Statistics

Metrics: The New Black? Presentation Transcript