Altmetrics: achieving and measuring success in communicating research in the digital age | Hazel Hall

Like many I communicate my scholarly research over multiple platforms in a range of activities that have now become routine for research-active academics. These include, for example:   [1] maintaining a personal archive of my publications, presentations and research reports – accessible through the publications and presentations tab on this web site [2] uploading papers to open access repositories – mine go to the Edinburgh Napier repository, and are also listed with links from the web pages of the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation [3] uploading videos of conference presentations – see for example the output from the AHRC-funded DREaM project in 2011-12 on the Library and Information Science Research Coalition Vimeo account [4] sharing PowerPoint presentations – I maintain a SlideShare account [5] blogging about research – here at hazelhall.org, and between 2009-2012 athttp://lisresearch.org [6] submitting papers to open access journals – I have submitted, for example, toLibrary and Information Research and Evidence Based Library and Information Practice [7] tweeting links to my work – as @hazelh

I also maintain a presence on a number of researcher registries, as listed from myAbout.me page. In doing so I leave scholarly digital footprints that others can follow, often in real-time. These can be measured as alternative, or 'alt', metrics alongside “traditional” bibliographic measures of output such as citation counts. Altmetrics are becoming increasingly important for established researchers, and are likely to be even more so for those who are at the start of their academic publishing careers, such as PhD students ... When earlier this academic year the Scottish Graduate School for Social Science (SGS)invited its subject pathways to propose sessions for the summer school in June 2013 I suggested that the Information Science pathway run a day on altmetrics. I argued that this would be worthwhile to give PhD students from across the full range of subject domains represented in the SGS the chance to learn about altmetrics, debate their value, and examine the digital trails that their own activity has already generated, and is likely to generate, in the future. It is important that PhD students be aware of the strategies that they can take to ensure that their work has reach, and impact, in an environment where altmetrics count ... Six months later on Thursday 20th June I hosted the Information Science Pathway eventAltmetrics: achieving and measuring success in communicating research in the digital age at the2013 ESRC SGS Summer School. I was joined by (1) Professor Blaise Cronin of Indiana University, who led the morning seminar on the 'metricisation' of scholarship, altmetrics and their place in scholarly communication, and (2) Brian Kelly of the University of Bath, who facilitated a workshop in which participants worked on their online presences, taking into account the insights gained from the morning session. This is my report of the day ..."