carol Feltes has held the prestigious position of University Librarian at The Rockefeller University in New York City since 2005. Carol has been a science librarian for over 30 years in a variety of not-for-profit and for-profit research environments including Aurora University, Battelle Columbus Laboratories, and three Fortune 500 companies (Monsanto, Kellogg, and Merck).

AIP library mattersNews for Librarians

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Library Matters: how is the field of bibliometrics evolving? carol Feltes: At this time there is a flurry of new ideas and activities causing both excitement and confusion. Bibliometric tools, originally created as indicators and selection aids for librarians, were adopted by researchers and administrators looking for performance measures. Now they realize that these early metrics are not meant for, and do not meet, their needs. So everyone — librarians, administrators, and researchers — are exploring the capabilities of technical innovations in search of more rigorous, comprehensive, and predictive measures.

lm: What are the most significant trends in bibliometrics and what is driving their development? cF: Bibliometrics began with citation analysis at the time of the very first computer-based citation database, Science Citation Abstracts, long before the worldwide web and mobile computing devices. The amount of data now available, and our ability to parse analyze and describe it, have revolutionized the possibilities for identifying and understanding trends and relationships. The problem is that we do not yet fully understand the use, the impact, and the

can We measure the Impact of a Single Scientific Article? librarian carol Feltes talks About Altmetrics

meaning of what we see and analyze. It’s the wild, wild west of bibliometrics.

Administrators are still very much focused on using established metrics, like journal impact factor (IF) and the h-index, to inform decisions on tenure, promotion, and allocation of resources. But the scientists who are impacted by these uses have realized that these metrics do not result in a fully informed decision.

The newest generation of scientists, in particular, are interested in capturing and leveraging data from a wider variety of newer sources, like social media, twitters, and blogs. They communicate among themselves in ways that more senior scientists do not, and believe that high levels of active discussion of research in these unpublished and more immediate sources of information, are highly valid indicators of the importance of the science.

lm: can you tell us about the “altmetrics” movement?cF: Altmetrics are metrics at the article level, and beyond, as opposed to the journal title level, like the IF. It is now possible to actually use — and cite — a portion of a paper — one dataset, figure, or section (like the discussion or conclusions). It is seen

as the “disaggregation” of an article and its parts from the journal that published it. A couple of things are really different about it. First, it can be much more immediate. Postings can happen within seconds or minutes of an article’s content being released publicly. Second, it tracks impact not just in the scholarly arena. It also is a measure of how much impact something has in the lay public. How ‘socialized’ is the content of this article? More and more scientists are moving their everyday work to the web and into the “cloud.” It is discoverable to interested individuals across any and all disciplines and may have truly unexpected influence. No one has previously considered what, if any, influence new scientific knowledge has beyond the realms of science.

lm: What are the strengths and weaknesses of altmetrics?cF: The greatest strength is how cutting edge, how immediate, altmetrics can be. Also the source for altmetrics data is extremely inclusive. Many sources are mined and counted that are not captured by aggregator databases. However, there are also several concerns. There is no guarantee that everything that is truly remarkable and worthy of broad notice

AIP Library Matters spoke with Carol about one of her favorite topics, bibliometrics, and the recent alternative to traditional metrics, altmetrics.

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WILL in fact be noted and shared. The context of the data or information is also often lost. Was the tweet discussion a positive or a negative one? Perhaps this work is being noted because it is flawed, or suspect. Such things need to be known….but in counting how many times something is cited, mentioned, or discussed is invariably a “plus” and that may be incorrect.

lm: What do web-based services like mendeley, oRcID, and Symplectic contribute?

cF: They are the current class of tools or filters that attempt to be comprehensive data gatherers as well as analytical tools for the data they amass. They are monitoring

every source they can identify on the web of data about individual scientists’ work and impact. They build profiles and count activities and mentions. They assist scientists with managing their own Cvs but do so much more than that. They help improve the accuracy of some measures — like the h-index — by disambiguating names. They facilitate new collaborations. They offer creative graphic representations of data.

lm: What is the role of the academic librarian and how can they make the most productive use of this information?

cF: The role of the librarian is to promote the understanding and appropriate use of

metrics, as well as to explore possible new ways to find and use trend information and patterns in the literature and the use of literature. Ultimately it is our job to help our patrons obtain knowledge that informs their decisions and actions.

carol recommends these sites for further information:

sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/ sparc-alm-primer.pdf

sparc.arl.org/initiatives/article-level-metrics

phys.org/news/2013-06-scientific-impact.html

Carol Feltes talks about altmetrics — continued from page 1

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