Social Science Space

Altmetrics: A Practical Guide for Librarians, Researchers and Academics, edited by Andy Tattersall, provides an overview of altmetrics and new methods of scholarly communication and how they can be applied successfully to provide evidence of scholarly contribution and improve how research is disseminated. The book, which draws on the expertise of leading figures in the field, strongly encourages library and information science (LIS) professionals to get involved with altmetrics to meet the evolving needs of the research community, finds Nathalie Cornée.

Remember that call for a ‘Bad Metric’ prize in the recent ‘The Metric Tide’ report? Peter Kraker, Katy Jordan and Elisabeth Lex take a closer look at one particularly opaque metric, the ResearchGate Score, and suggest they’ve found a real contender.

A recent conference aimed to bridge the gap between the different communities interested in bibliometrics. A key theme was the strong need for more openness and transparency: transparency in research evaluation processes to avoid biases, transparency of algorithms that compute new scores and openness of useful technology.

The Declaration on Research Assessment, or DORA, has yet to achieve widespread institutional support in the UK. Maybe its reception might be warmed if DORA was more like its cousin, the Leiden Manifesto.

Rather than expecting people to stop utilizing metrics altogether, we would be better off focusing on making sure the metrics are effective and accurate, argues Brett Buttliere.

While the initial splash made by ‘The Metric Tide,’ an independent review on the role of metrics in research assessment, has died down since its release last month, the underlying critique continues to make waves.

Jane Tinkler argues that if institutions like HEFCE specify a narrow set of impact metrics, more harm than good would come to universities forced to limit their understanding of how research is making a difference. But, she adds, qualitative and quantitative indicators continue to be an incredible source of learning for how impact works.

A new report looking at the role of metrics in analyzing British academe finds, ‘A lot of the things we value most in academic culture resist simple quantification, and individual indicators can struggle to do justice to the richness and diversity of our research.’