FEATURE Metrics
Getting the measure
Interest in bibliometric data in the library community is probably growing more rapidly now than at any other time in its history, writes David Stuart
T
he introduction of the web and new forms of scholarly publication are providing a seemingly endless source of data about scholarly communication that can be
combined to produce a multitude of new indicators that may be used to inform existing library services, as well as establish new ones. Speaking to Phill Jones, head of publisher outreach at Digital Science (www.digital-
science.com), the potential and progress in bibliometric indicators is clear, but even with the most fundamental of metrics, such as usage, there is still a long way to go.
The changing information ecosystem
Bibliometric indicators have long been recognised as having a wide range of applications for improving library services, from journal selection and user recommendations to the weeding of a library’s stock. However, according to Jones, the changing information ecosystem means there is a need for increased granularity in the nature of these indicators:
‘The advent of the internet and e-publishing has opened the floodgates, and one of the biggest problems that librarians and a library’s patrons face is deciding which content is relevant and of high quality. It’s difficult to use the traditional impact factor metrics as a proxy for research quality, or journal quality, because
there’s just too much content. The value of journal prestige as a metric for the quality and importance of research is eroding; more and more of the top cited articles are coming from second and third tier journals, and if that trend continues, then article level metrics are going to be increasingly more helpful. Article level citation metrics are the obvious choice, but you need something that’s more rapid, and which gives a broader view of the kinds of impact that articles are capable of giving you. That’s where I see the opportunities growing.’ Jones continues: ‘Attention, impact and mentions exist on a spectrum, from the most superficial, which may be a tweet, to the most important and impactful sort of mention, which may be an academic article, a mention in a government policy document, or even a news article that sways public opinion and results in a public policy change. Context is vitally important, and simply adding up the different metrics doesn’t give you the full picture; it’s important to understand why the article was mentioned, in what context and venue it was mentioned, and whether that mention was positive or negative.’
The changing library Of course, while there may be a lot of talk about the potential of new library metrics, often adoption rates are slower on the ground. For Jones, however, there is a real groundswell of interest from a wide range of stakeholders: ‘As it becomes clear to more people that altmetrics, usage metrics, and other kinds of article-level metrics solve real problems that researchers face, the more excited people get. ‘For example, Wiley polled users during their altmetric trial and found 77 per cent of the respondents thought that the altmetrics data was valuable, and 50 per cent of respondents were more likely to submit to a journal that supported altmetrics. It shows the value that this kind of data is having for people.’ ‘We’re also seeing an increasingly strong role
24 Research Information DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016
for librarians in curating the research output of their institutions and measuring that impact. Various funding bodies are requiring evidence of broader societal impact and there are a lot of institutions that are now not just using citations and usage metric data, but also web mentions, and that broader impact in order to demonstrate the societal impact of their particular institution. To make an analogy: publishers are investing in author services more and more, as scholarly communication is becoming increasingly about providing services to those who create the content to help them maximise their impact, and the library is mirroring what’s happening in the publishing industry in terms of increasing author services, and being a much more author- centric environment.’ Jones adds: ‘It’s something that’s really taking hold and it’ll increase over time. A lot of that is being driven by the research funders themselves, particularly in places like the UK, Netherlands and Australia. ‘You now get universities with teams of bibliometricians, webometricians and metrics experts who are compiling reports and doing those analyses in order to support their researchers and to help them maximise the impact of their work, and also help them report
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