A New Frontier?: Faculty Use
(or non-use) of Altmetrics
@
UT Arlington
College of Engineering
by
Sylvia George-Williams
Presentation to the
Texas STEM Librarians Conference
College Station, TX
July 19, 2014
Outline
O Overview of UT Arlington
O Background
O Reasons for survey
O The survey
O Results
O Analysis
O Next steps
Overview of UT Arlington
 Comprehensive
research uni
 2nd largest in the UT System
 6th largest in Texas
 180+ degree programs
 10 schools and colleges
 33, 000+ students
 120+ countries
Background
 TechnoScholar (series of workshops)
 Related to technology and research
 Open to faculty and graduate students
 “Not a Fear Factor…”
 Impact Factor/publishing
 mainly engineering/science participants
 Focus on traditional metrics, but mention of
alternative metrics
Reasons for Survey
 Most important
 Better prepare for workshop
 Other:
 Rising interest in altmetrics
 Conversations with new faculty
 Understand what goes on in the college
The Survey
 October 2013
 Quick survey (survey monkey)
 8 questions
 Department Chairs
 7 departments (BioE, CE, CSE, EE, IMSE, MAE, MSE)
 Two weeks
The Results
O 5 returned:
BioE, CSE, IMSE, MAE, MSE
O No response from:
CE, EE
Results (cont.)
Q. 1.
All consider impact when hiring, &
for promotion/tenure
Q. 2.
All use traditional methods
(journal/author impact)
None use altmetrics
Q. 3.
Zero responses to specific sources
of altmetrics used (blogs, twitter, etc.)
Results (cont.)
Q. 4. How they felt about the use of altmetrics to
measure impact in scientific community:
 60% - lower standard
 0% - raise standard of scholarship
 20% - provide more opportunities for scholars to
get cited
 40% - provide additional avenues for finding more
articles
 20% - didn’t know
Results (cont.)
Q. 5.
Thoughts about the altmetrics “movement”
 20% - a fad
 0% - here to stay
 80% - not sure
Q. 6.
Use of altmetrics as another tool to measure
own impact
 0% - will use
 80% - no
 20% - not sure
Q. 7. Would like to know more about
altmetrics
 20% - yes
 60% - no
 20% - not sure
Results (cont.)
Q. 8. Other thoughts about the use of altmetrics
 perhaps more appropriate for fields other than
engineering
 Social media insufficient for understanding true
importance of someone’s research
 Ideas without true substance can be hyped
 Long-term impact and importance is of little interest to
social media audience, but purpose of research is to
address long-term and ongoing problems
Analysis
 Mind made up about what altmetrics are?
 If Department Chairs not interested, what
does that mean for younger faculty?
 Can Department Chairs be made to change
their minds?
 Interest in altmetrics varies by discipline?
Next Steps…
 What should we do?
 More survey??
 Find out how other faculty feel?
O Faculty-wide survey on scholarly
communication
The End
Questions??
Appendix
List of questions asked:
1.
My department considers a scholar's impact in the scientific community in:
a.
The hiring process
b.
The promotion and tenure process
c.
Both
d.
Neither
2.
If your department does consider a scholar's impact, what methods do you use to
measure this impact?
a.
Traditional methods (journal impact factor)
b.
The newer altmetrics (mention in social media - blogs, twitter, etc.)
c.
Both
d.
Neither
e.
Other (please specify)
3.
If you chose "The newer altmetrics" above, what specific sources do you use to
measure this impact?
a.
Mention in social media (facebook, twitter, blogs, etc.)
b.
Mention/appearance in traditional media (mention in
newspapers/magazines, appearance as an expert on tv/radio shows)
c.
Mention in online reference managers (Mendeley, CiteULike, etc.)
d.
None of the above
e.
All of the above
f.
Other (please specify)
4.
As a senior scientist/scholar/researcher, I feel that the use of altmetrics to measure
impact in the scientific community will:
a.
Lower the standard of scholarship
b.
Raise the standard of scholarship
c.
Provide more opportunities for scholars to get cited
d.
Just provide authors and users additional ways to find article metrics
e.
Don't know
5.
As a senior scientist/scholar/researcher, I think this movement towards the
use of altmetrics to measure scholarly impact is:
a.
A fad (will pass away soon)
b.
Here to stay
c.
Not sure
6.
As a senior scientist/scholar/researcher, I will definitely use altmetrics as
another tool to measure my impact.
a.
Yes
b.
No
c.
Not sure
7.
I would like to know more about altmetrics.
a.
Yes
b.
No
c.
Not sure
8.
Please share any other thoughts about the use of altmetrics in measuring
impact in the scientific community that you think is important.