Guest Post by Jane Burns, MBA, MLIS, MPhil, FLAI
Manager of Information, Library & Web Services, Irish
Hospice Foundation
Lecturer, School of Information Studies, University College
Dublin
Altmetric Ambassador
There’s
amazing potential here on the frontier of science online; researchers shouldn’t
be afraid to explore and to stake out what they want in terms of how people
view their work.
Euan
Adie, Founder of Altmetric.com, on the promise the new tool holds.
I first learned about Altmetrics from my colleague and
friend Michelle Dalton who is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at
University College Dublin (UCD) back in 2014. I really started to get into
reading about the topic and using it as part of a suite of research tools so when
the call went out by Altmetric.com in 2015 for applications to be Altmetric
Ambassadors I was delighted to apply.
Understanding Altmetrics and being able to share that
knowledge with colleagues and students has really helped me gain a broader
understanding of measurement and impact. For my professional life I wear a
number of hats. I am the Manager of Information, Library & Web Services at
the Irish Hospice Foundation, I lecture part time to MLIS students in the
School of Information & Communication Studies at University College Dublin.
I find the whole area of Altmetrics extremely interesting
and love to be able to share this interest as an Altmetric Ambassador with a
range of people. I hope my passion for the topic becomes infectious. When I
present I always make it very clear that Altmetric are not a replacement for
traditional bibliometrics but rather a complementary alternative, especially
for new researchers who know that there is a time delay for citations to
accrue.
The power of almetrics to measure where research is getting
attention is important for researchers to see if they are indeed reaching their
target audience. The other really positive aspect I try to demonstrate is that,
as a researcher, through engagement and self promotion you have the power to
help raise awareness about your research, as well as opening yourself up to new
opportunities to identify collaborators and build a positive online research
community.
An Introduction to Altmetrics is a part of the course Management for Information Professionals that
I lecture on at UCD for the past two years. The students are really keen to
learn more about the topic and hopefully a good understanding will help them in
their employment pursuits. Here is a
picture from students from this past semester during the Altmetric class. Altmetrics are very generous in the supply of
promotional material as you can see in the picture below:
If you want to learn more about Altmetrics I highly
recommend the publication Altmetrics: A
Practical Guide for Librarians , Researchers and Academics. Each chapter is written by experts in the
areas of research management with a full list to top learning points and
resources at the end of every chapter.
This will help any librarian when preparing to work with researchers in
promoting their work.
My top tips for Librarians when promoting the use of
altmetrics in their institution are:
• Engage
with the Altmetric organisation – there are lots of online tutorials and the
newsletters are a great way to learn what is happening. Also engage with them
on Twitter.
• Spotlight
Altmetric donuts in research that you use and encourage people to monitor own research.
• Present
about the topic situated in a suite of other measurements and be clear about
what altmetrics can and can’t do.
The most important thing is to
engage with people: they are curious you just have to show them the way.
•
Jane Burns, MBA, MLIS, MPhil, FLAI
Manager of Information, Library & Web Services, Irish
Hospice Foundation
Lecturer, School of Information Studies, University College
Dublin
Altmetric Ambassador
No comments:
Post a Comment