This presentation was provided by Todd Carpenter of NISO and Nicky Agate of Columbia University during the NISO event, "Is This Still Working? Incentives to Publish, Metrics, and New Reward Systems," held on February 20, 2019.

1. NISO Virtual Conference
Is This Still Working? Incentives to Publish,
Metrics and New Reward Systems
The Impact on Scholar & Researcher
Nicky Agate,
Assistant Director of Scholarly Communication and
Digital Projects, Columbia University

2. Question: Metrics in Your World
• From your perspective as the Assistant Director of
Scholarly Communications there at Columbia, how are
researchers adapting to this new world of metrics?
• What trepidations exist? What concerns might faculty be
sharing with you?
• How do you allay those concerns regarding the use of
analytics and metrics?

3. Question: Metrics in the Context of the Humanities
Particularly in the humanities, there are discussions of the
need to develop meaningful, evaluative metrics of digital
scholarship for purposes of promotion and tenure reviews.
At the same time, there have been some who denied the
need for any metrics in evaluating the digital humanities.
• Can you talk about how evaluative metrics in the arena of
digital humanities might need to differ from those in use in
STM disciplines?

4. Question: Data Collection and Analysis
Based on what you’ve heard here today, are service
providers moving in the right direction?
Are they designing the appropriate systems needed?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

5. Question: Data Collection and Analysis
What recommendations might you have as to how providers
might better support institutions in avoiding misinterpretation
and/or misuse of metrics arising from analytic services?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

6. Question: Data Collection and Analysis
Being a scholar in your own right, do you have concerns
about how some of these systems of data collection and
analysis by institutions of higher education here and abroad
may impact on scholarship?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

7. Question: Developing Useful Metrics for the Community
In the context of digitized and special collections, what are
libraries and archives doing in terms of developing metrics
for assessing the use and impact of those materials? Are
there lessons for providers who might be listening in?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

8. Question: Developing the Appropriate Metrics
In a 2017 issue of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly
Communication, you’ve expressed hesitations over allowing “the
technologically feasible determine the academically desirable” --
particularly in the context of metrics. (See https://jlsc-
pub.org/articles/abstract/10.7710/2162-3309.2196/)
What steps would you like to see the academic environment take to
ensure that their needs and/or concerns are prioritized?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

9. Question: Developing the Appropriate Metrics
Again, you did some terrific work on the HuMetricsHSS
project, http://humetricshss.org.
Can you give the NISO audience a sense of what you have
seen emerging in the context about values-based
(alt)metrics for enhanced library services?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

10. Question: Metrics and Repositories
You’re currently response for a team that works with the institutional repository at
Columbia University. Previously, you were Head of Digital Initiatives at the
Modern Language Association. Can you talk about the need for and use of
metrics in assessing content held in institutional or disciplinary repositories?
Given the need to justify expenditures in maintaining such repositories, in your
view what data might be useful to administrators? What metrics?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

11. Question: Looking Forward
What might you want to see with regard to the development
of metrics for long-form content? As a humanist who is also
familiar with platform development, what kind of metrics
make sense to you?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 20, 2019

12. NISO Virtual Conference:
Institutional Repositories: Ensuring Yours is
Populated, Useful and Thriving
Questions from Our
Audience?
NISO Virtual Conference • February 15, 2017