researchers' use of social media and altmetrics in south...
TRANSCRIPT
Researchers' use of social media and altmetrics in South Africa
Marinus Swanepoel PhD. PhD (HC).
Outline
• Introduction
• Research question
• Challenges
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusion
Introduction
Social media and altmetrics
The power of social media
Research questions
• Altmetrics is a recent development, are academics aware of it?
• If they are, do they consider it in their scholarly communication?
• Do they recognize that social media can enlarge and enhance their scholarly/academic footprint?
• What social media services are they using?
• What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media?
• Challenges
– Mobility of academics
– Demographics
– Ethics approval
– Distinguishing between private and departmental use of social media
– #mustfall unrest
Mobility of academics
Demographics
http://blog.funmobility.com/2014/09/18/social_media_demographics_2014/
Ethics approval
Distinguishing between private and departmental use of social media
#mustfall unrest
Methodology
• Identification of interviewees
Serial # # items in Scopus
SAP01 335
SAP02 264
SANS03 242
SASS04 180
SANS05 139
SASS06 105
SANS07 70
SASS08 46
SAHM09 23
SAHM10 17
Serial # # items in Scopus
SANS11 214
SAP12 144
SAP13 102
SAP14 74
SANS15 50
SASS16 39
SASS17 39
SANS18 24
SAHM19 18
SAHM20 13
Serial # # items in Scopus
SANS21 272
SANS22 271
SANS23 192
SAP24 125
SAP25 116
SASS26 61
SASS27 56
SAHM28 37
SASS29 34
SAHM30 12
Serial # # of items in Scopus
# of items in Web of Science
# of items in Google Scholar
# of items in inst. repository
# of items in Research Gate
SAP01 335 362 * 47 *
SAP02 264 336 416 130 379
SANS03 242 59 389 57 313
SASS04 180 104 * 208 216
SANS05 139 173 209 71 244
SASS06 105 35 * 161 78
SANS07 70 67 91 34 98
SASS08 46 141 312 43 106
SAHM09 23 16 163 13 81
SAHM10 17 7 89 27 51
Serial # # of items in Scopus
# of items in Web of Science
# of items in Google Scholar
# of items in inst. repository
# of items in ResearchGate
SANS11 214 52 * 20 *
SAPM12 144 143 260 58 224
SAPM13 102 82 198 43 127
SAPI14 74 40 85 7 96
SANS15 50 42 * 30 *
SASS16 39 19 * 22 52
SASS17 39 32 * 13 7
SANS18 24 4 52 3 44
SAHM19 18 10 * 11 *
SAHM20 13 6 23 1 22
Serial #
# of items in Scopus
# of items in Web of Science
# of items in Google Scholar
# of items in institutional repository
# of items in Research Gate
SANS21 272 266 413 142 432
SANS22 271 134 * 117 *
SANS23 192 197 * 154 265
SAP24 125 85 164 99 *
SAP25 116 98 * 44 *
SASS26 61 25 223 59 127
SASS27 56 3 153 1 23
SAHM28 37 32 * 61 *
SASS29 34 4 * 28 *
SAHM30 12 6 * 9 *
The interview
• Presentation on altmetrics
• Structured interview followed the presentation that was recorded and transcribed
Are South Africans academics aware of altmetrics?
• “Only two years ago one of my papers was published in a Wiley journal. I went in there and I saw this...., what do you called it, hamburger or a bun or.... the doughnut thing and I didn’t understand this. I went and look there and there was a lot of tweets and a lot of things going on about this paper… that was when I first became aware of altmetrics. ” Researcher in medicine
5/30
Do they consider altmetrics in their scholarly communication?
0/30
Considerations in where to publish
• Impact factor
• Audience of the journal
• Mandate of the journal
• Review process
• Speed
• Open Access
Do they recognize that social media can enlarge and enhance their scholarly/academic footprint?
• “It is not that I don’t approve of any of these things, I am concerned about how time consuming or perhaps all consuming they can become and divert my attention from more important activities.” Researcher in one of the professions
• “I have a link (profile) on LinkedIn and ResearchGate and they flood me with information and I just get actually quite angry sometimes and then I distance myself from the whole thing. So that kind of puts me off.” Researcher in one of the professions
Do they recognize that social media can enlarge and enhance their scholarly/academic footprint?
Continued 2
• “Recent events in this country put me off from social media. Especially as an academic you could quickly find yourself into big serious trouble.” Researcher in one of the professions
• “I am a bit wary to put my publications on social media because of copyright issues and things like that.” Researcher in the humanities
What social media services are they using?
6(2*)/30
What social media services are they using?
“I find it incredibly rewarding. For me Twitter has become like a new source about my field and the fields that I am interesting in…. I have 500 and something followers” Researcher in the sciences
“…a page long summary, which we post on our website. Almost all of those are also converted to a Facebook page and Twitter feed.” Researcher in the science
What social media services are they using?
• “So it (Facebook page) is designed really just for promoting the laboratory and its activities for whatever purpose, public awareness, recruiting, etc.” Researcher in the sciences
13(6*)/30
• “I am connected to some other scholars in my field on Facebook.” Researcher in the humanities
• “Yes, I make use of Facebook by saying: by the way guys this paper has just gone out….and quite often paste the link in.” Researcher in the social sciences
What social media services are they using? Continued 2
• “It is too much, I can’t handle this….. I have 1000’s of emails and this and…. so I am off ResearchGate.” Researcher in one of the professions
• “And I must say sometimes we are in a bit of a competition between the guys saying ‘I passed you on the (ResearchGate) score..’” Researcher in one of the professions
20/30
What social media services are they using? Continued 3
• “It sits there and occasionally, once ever three months I get an invite from some odd person and nothing else happens.” Researcher in the humanities
• “I do (have a LinkedIn account), but I don’t know…, I don’t use it. I don’t know what it is suppose to do.” Researcher in the social sciences
21(6*)/30
What social media services are they using? Continued 4
14(4*)/30
• “I struggle to use it (Academia.edu) for some reason. I find ResearchGate a lot easier.” Researcher in the sciences
• “Whenever I get to the website (Academia.edu), I always see the messages, and I send people articles, so that works.” Researcher in the humanities
• “I would say one star. I do I use it (Google+) a little bit. Successfully? I have no idea.” Researcher in the sciences
• “I get the odd request through Google+” Researcher in the sciences
What social media services are they using? Continued 5
5(2*)/30
What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media?
• “In my last application for the NRF rating, I just copied a nice
box of my Google Scholar profile. So, that is the only value. I should not be like that. I should talk to myself.” Researcher in the humanities
• “… with LinkedIn, it is nice to see my peers, who their connections are and people that I know. Via that route I have made nice connections.” Researcher in medicine
What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media? Continued 2
• “I find that it (ResearchGate) probably does assist substantially with the exposure with my work to the community.” Researcher in the science
• “ResearchGate, because it is community-driven, helps because if one of the authors places it (an article), it is there automatically. It reduces the load.” Researcher in the sciences
What is the perceived benefit of their use of social media? Continued 3
• “I have been quite active in making sure that ResearchGate has a pretty comprehensive list of my published works, I do that because I think it has visibility, and therefore value.” Researcher in the sciences
• “One of the sites that I use quite a lot for my data sets is ResearchGate. So, often, I either put the paper that is open access there or if it is not then I do a post-print. And then I link key data sets to those.” Researcher in the science
Conclusions
Older academics tend to have personal webpages where they make their academic artifacts available. The younger generation appears to rely more on social media and repositories.
“I put down the fact that I haven’t ever become engaged with it (Twitter), purely to age.” Researcher in the sciences
Some researchers realize that they can enhance their academic footprint through social media but lacks the motivation to act.
“I’ll have to reconsider my behavior (towards the use of social media for academic use) then. Of course I want to get more citations, but I am not putting in effort to get there, I just want to publish.” Researcher in the social science
Conclusions
Some researchers are skeptic about putting more effort into social media use because of a lack of perceived benefit.
“I have tried, and it (LinkedIn) is worthless as far as I can tell.” Researcher in the sciences
Conclusions
Follow up 2017