This document summarizes an experiment conducted by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of California, San Francisco to deliver trending publications to researchers via email. The CTSI pulled publication interests from researchers' profile pages and matched recent PubMed publications to their interests. The top 5 publications based on AltMetric scores were included in individualized emails sent to 50 researchers on a monthly basis. Based on the low 4% response rate to a follow-up survey, the CTSI concluded it was a qualified failure but learned targeted, higher-value information like funding opportunities may be better received, and presenting results directly in researcher profiles rather than via email could gain more traction. Next steps include adding a gadget to

1. Clinical and Translational
Science Institute / CTSI
at the University of California, San Francisco
Delivering Trending Publications to
Researchers
UCSF – Brian Turner and Anirvan Chatterjee

2. Agenda
• Experiment to serve our researchers
• What we delivered
• Results/Learnings
• Next Steps

3. Genesis of this Idea
• We strive to engage and serve the researcher
– While not overburdening or spamming them
• Look to other ‘network’ products and services
• Look at what we have of value
• Publications of Interest - POI

4. How did we do that?
• Pull interests from Profile page
• Get Papers
– See what matches in PubMed within past month
– Combined interests, i.e. Tuberculosis and Global
Health
• Run each paper against AltMetric API and
pull out the top five based on AltMetric score.
• Assemble emails

5. Send Catchy Email

6. Survey Results
• Four responses (of fifty emails)
• Most wanted more targeted publications
• Most said monthly or less frequent delivery
preferred
• One said they would like to see it in Profiles

7. Take Aways – what we think we learned
• Qualified Failure
• Likely to get more traction with higher-value
information like funding opportunities
• Great idea to test before investing in
development
• Might be better presented in Profiles, once
users are signing in
– Email reminder optional

8. Next Steps
• Add gadget to Profiles via ORNG
• Find viable source for funding opportunities