Interpreting social media actsThe various meanings of altmetrics

Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein

Informetrics, bibliometrics, scientometrics, altmetrics

Björneborn, L. & Ingwersen, P. (2004), Toward a basic framework for webometrics. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(14), 1216–1227.

adapted from: Björneborn & Ingwersen (2004, p. 1217)

Scholarly metrics

Björneborn, L. & Ingwersen, P. (2004), Toward a basic framework for webometrics. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(14), 1216–1227.

adapted from: Björneborn & Ingwersen (2004, p. 1217)

Scholarly metrics are metrics based on acts (e.g., viewing, reading, saving, diffusing, mentioning, citing, reusing, modifying)related to scholarly documents (e.g., papers, blog posts, datasets, code, notes) or scholarly agents (e.g., researchers, universities, journals).

Framework of acts

Haustein, S., Bowman, T. D., & Costas, R. (2016). Interpreting “altmetrics”: viewing acts on social media through the lens of citation and social theories. In C. R. Sugimoto (Ed.), Theories of Informetrics and Scholarly Communication. A Festschrift in Honor of Blaise Cronin (pp. 372–405). Berlin: De Gruyter. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.05701

RESEARCH OBJECT

Interpreting acts

Haustein, S., Bowman, T. D., & Costas, R. (2016). Interpreting “altmetrics”: viewing acts on social media through the lens of citation and social theories. In C. R. Sugimoto (Ed.), Theories of Informetrics and Scholarly Communication. A Festschrift in Honor of Blaise Cronin (pp. 372–405). Berlin: De Gruyter. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.05701

• Normative theory (Merton, 1973)Researchers behave according to ‘ethos of science’• Communism• Universalism

• Social constructivist theory (MacRoberts & MacRoberts, 1989)

• Concept symbols (Small, 1978)

• Social capital (Bourdieu, 1985)

• Attention economics (Davenport & Beck, 2001)

• Impression management (Goffman, 1959)

• Disinterestedness• Organized skepticism

Interpreting acts

• Normative theoryResearchers behave according to ‘ethos of science’• Communism• Universalism

Saving to Mendeley Mentioning on Twitter Recommending on F1000Prime Citing in a blog post

• Disinterestedness• Organized skepticism

Interpreting acts with normative theory

• Saving to Mendeley• Academic use and users• Pre-citation context• Anonymous nature of saving process• Not all papers are read

• Mentioning on Twitter• Diverse use and users• Brevity• Diffusion rather than discussion• Humor and entertainment

Interpreting acts with normative theory

• Recommending on F1000Prime• Faculty members are “world’s leading scientists” • Reviewers “must sign a statement to indicate that the

article has been selected […] entirely on its scientific merit and […] not been influenced”.

• Citing in a blog post• Similar to citations in scientific publications• “The post author should have read and understood the

entire work cited [and] report accurately and thoughtfully on the research.” (Research Blogging)

• Open and uncontrolled nature

Conclusions

• Heterogeneity of• use• user populations• user motivations

• Processes not yet understood

• Biases

• Avoiding adverse effects of metrics

Thank youfor your attention!Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein