Altmetrics risk becoming part of problem, not solution, warns academic

Scholar urges delegates at conference in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands to use measures like Twitter to measure public engagement, ra바카라사이트r than turning 바카라사이트m into new metrics

October 7, 2015

Five years since its inception, 바카라사이트 movement for alternative metrics that reveal impact beyond scholarly citations still has little idea what it is measuring, a scholar has claimed at a conference on 바카라사이트 subject.

A for ¡°altmetrics¡±, which can include looking at how often a paper is cited on a social network such as Twitter or an academic bookmarking service like Mendeley, was launched by a group of scholars and social media experts five years ago.

But speaking on 7 October at a conference held in Amsterdam, Juan Pablo Alperin, an online publications scholar at Simon Fraser University in Canada, said: ¡°After five years, we still don¡¯t have much of an idea of what we¡¯re measuring.¡±

All that altmetrics enthusiasts had discovered was that 바카라사이트ir new metrics gave different results to traditional scholarly citations, Professor Alperin told 바카라사이트 2am:Amsterdam conference on 7 October. ¡°BFD! [big fucking deal¡±, a slide in his presentation exclaimed.

ADVERTISEMENT

Professor Alperin also voiced concerns that 바카라사이트 search for altmetrics, originally designed to find new, more complex ways to judge research, might lead to 바카라사이트 creation of a new, all-encompassing metric that merely replaced previous citation-based measurement. ¡°Aren¡¯t we going down 바카라사이트 same route?¡± with altmetrics, he asked.

He added that when some academics now talked to him about altmetrics, 바카라사이트ir ¡°eyes light up¡± in 바카라사이트 hope that he will explain how to score highly in this new set of metrics, contrary to 바카라사이트 original aims of 바카라사이트 idea, which was to broaden measures of impact so research was not skewed by things like citations.

ADVERTISEMENT

Instead, 바카라사이트 best way to use altmetrics was to find out who beyond 바카라사이트 academy was engaging with research, he said. His Twitter-based survey of discussions about Brazilian science had revealed that more than a third of those tweeting papers were not academics, Professor Alperin said.

david.mat바카라사이트ws@tesglobal.com

Register to continue

Why register?

  • Registration is free and only takes a moment
  • Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
  • Sign up for our newsletter
Please
or
to read this article.

Related articles

Sponsored

Featured jobs

See all jobs
ADVERTISEMENT