This presentation from Lorraine Estelle, Director, Project Counter, was part of the Dec. 3, 2015 Library Connect Webinar, How researchers share articles: impact on library resources and services. View the webinar recording: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/library-connect-webinars?commid=167539 Find out more about the Beyond Downloads project: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/beyond-downloads

1. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Calculating sharing metrics:
Possible approaches
Lorraine Estelle
Director, Project Counter
Library Connect Webinar Dec. 3, 2015
How researchers share articles: impact on library resources and services

2. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Range of Systems
Key findings include:
• Lack of global usage data standards makes quantifying sharing
problematic.
• Difficult to obtain data on authors’ sharing via email and cloud
services.
• Data obtained is likely to be out of date rather quickly.

3. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Two suggested approaches
1. Data-based approach
employing usage data from
publishers and citation data
– where such data is
comprehensive and reliable.
2. Survey-based approach
using an online community
as a basis for monitoring
sharing behavior over time.

4. Center for Information and Communication Studies
A data-based approach to measuring the extent
of scholarly materials sharing
1. Data on article sharing by formal and informal methods
will be difficult to collect reliably owing to the large
number of channels used and the lack of global standards
2. The mix of sharing methods used varies from discipline to
discipline and from year to year
3. It would make sense to supplement a data-based approach
to measuring post-download usage with regular surveys
of the scholarly community

5. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Full-Text Sharing Calculator
• Can a calculator be derived from the
findings?
• If not, can a suggested range of
“sharing” be derived from the
findings?
Problems:
• Ranges and SE
are high
• Outliers skew
results
• Demographics
matter a lot

6. Center for Information and Communication Studies
A range of sharing, in lieu of a calculator, may be the answer. This range
can come in the form of an overall range (derived from all respondents) or
categorized ranges (derived from selected identifying categories).

7. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Demographics sometimes matter…
• Researchers age 39 and
younger share less through
formal methods
• Researchers age 40-59 rely
more on formal sharing
methods and post slightly
less, but to outlets that reach
more people

8. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Demographics sometimes matter…
Social scientists share
more via social media.

9. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Alternatives
• Any estimate on number of times an article is shared per
download depends on many things.
• An alternative to an exact calculator would be to apply a
Confidence Interval to the findings and provide an
estimated “range of sharing,” with a lower bound and
upper at a 95% level of confidence.
• This range could in turn be combined with download
numbers to estimate a level of actual, post-download
usage.

10. Center for Information and Communication Studies
Collaborative initiatives with
• DOI Event Tracking
– Open, common infrastructure to track activities
around DOIs recording user content
interactions
• Distributed Usage Logging
– Peer-to-peer system for the exchange of
usage data on user content interactions