PLATFORM INNOVATIONS THAT STICK…and why some of them don’t

Phill Jones@phillbjones

Head of Publisher Outreachp.jones@digital-science.com

The Digital Science Portfolio

The publisher’s new job is to support researchers at every stage of the research cycle

-Annette Thomas, CEO Macmillan

We study trends in technology and market needs to accelerate science

1. Invest in promising start-ups

2. Develop tools internally

Improving Discovery

Improving meta-data and inter-operability make content more discoverable

However, mixed evidence on whether discovery layers are gaining traction

Do Discovery Layers Increase Usage?

http://www.slideshare.net/MichaelLevineClark/mlc-jdm-jsp-charleston-2013-slideshare-28161600

Generally, yes**Not for all publishers*Not for all Libraries

Case Study: University of Utrecht

A few people noticedNobody complained

source: http://libereurope.eu/news/thinking-the-unthinkable-a-library-without-a-catalogue-reconsidering-the-future-of-discovery-tools-for-utrecht-university-library/

Discontinued use of a discovery layer and catalogue to focus on access

Supplemental discovery solutions that fit into researcher

workflows

• Direct integration into reference managers

• Recommendation engines

Innovative Discovery Solutions

It is unclear how discovery will play out over the next couple of years

Keeping Users on Platform

~70-80% of users click on the PDF download

link

PDF appears inside browser

The user still appears to be online

BUT - Engagement is lost!

Innovation vs Window Dressing?

What publishers are trying to do

What some customers think publishers are doing

Innovation Driven by User NeedsInnovation that sticks comes from directly addressing the needs of the market

What keeps researchers awake at night?

1 Increasing competition for faculty and tenure posts• Growing need to showcase individual researcher contribution• Fewer posts, more competition, less time

2 The ways in which research impact is measured is changing• Individual article metrics increasing used alongside IF• Broader societal impact (altmetrics) becoming increasingly important

3 Mandates to make research output freely available• Open Access – NIH, Welcome Trust• Data Publication – EG American Heart Association

An Innovation that Stuck: Altmetrics

Society interacts with science in many ways, altmetrics is about measuring as much societal impact as possible

Impact is not limited to citations:

Public outreach Social media Traditional news Commercial Impact Legislative impact Policy

Snowball metrics

Publisher, institutional and researcher targeted products

The Evaluation Gap

Traditional measuresof impact

Research evaluation frameworks and funder mandates require authors to gather and collate both metrics and alternative research outputs

Funders’ requirements to measure impact• Societal Impact• Public

Engagement• Legislative

Impact

Wiley survey, 2014

http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2014/03/19/wiley-introduces-altmetrics-to-its-open-access-journals/

77% agreed or strongly

agreed that altmetrics enhanced

the value of the journal article

50% agreed that they were more likely to submit a paper to a journal that

supports altmetrics

65% felt the metrics

were useful

“Looking forward to the day I can put altmetric measures on my cv and have everyone who reads it know what they mean! I am a fan.” 

— Britt Koskella (@bkoskella) July 2, 2013 

Wiley’s Altmetrics Survey

The Lessons of Altmetrics• Many platform innovations have not gained significant traction but altmetrics have

• Altmetrics addresses several researcher pain-points1. Authors want rapid feedback on which of their articles

are the most interesting to researchers and to society2. Readers need ways to assess which content is likely to

be most interesting and useful3. A number of funders are assessing broader societal

impact, not just citations

• Question: What are the emerging needs that can be addressed with innovation?

A Neglected Market: Post-Docs

• ~90,000 postdocs in the US

• >50% non-US citizens

National Association of PostDocs

Post-Docs need to build an international reputation

1. Receive credit for their contributions

2. Share more of their research outputs

Open Science As Opportunity

A body of work begins with an idea and ends when the impact of that idea has been maximized.

Institutional/funding needs

Research management software, reporting

Personal ImpactAltmetrics, Author profiles

Documentation of findingsPublications, Open data

Doing the ResearchDigital Notebooks, Lab Management Software

Getting an IdeaReference Managers, Social Reading

Open science is a way for early stage researchers to get credit for their contributions

Funders are increasingly mandating open data

New Output TypesPublishers can enable researchers to make all research output available, discoverable and citable

Examples

JoVE pioneered video techniques publication

OMERA codifying and publishing microscopy data

Taylor and Francis and PLoS use figshare to visualize supplementary information and make data available

Library RepositoriesLibraries are using repositories to store and collate research output of their institutions

Many repository efforts lack adequate discoverabilityBUTLibrarians are learning quickly from publishers and researchers

The Data Space Race

Where will researchers go for data and other research outputs in the future?

Publishers’ supplementary infoOR

Institutional repositories?

Whoever makes it:

a. Discoverableb. Citablec. Linked to the article

Some Predictions

1. Researchers will use workflow tools like reference managers to aid discovery

2. Not all innovations will stick, look for those that serve market needs

3. Early career stage researchers will be key• They need new ways to get credit for their work• New publication types will include research outputs,

techniques, code, even lab notes

4. The data publishing space will be critical

Digital Science Research Reports

Free quarterly publication on research data and analytical possibilities

First issue, June 2014

Evidence for excellence: has the signal overtaken the substance?byJonathon Adams, Chief Scientist for Digital Science

http://www.digital-science.com/blog/posts/digital-science-launches-digital-research-reports

Thank You For Listening

Phill JonesHead of Publisher OutreachDigital Science

www.digital-science.com

p.jones@digital-science.com

@phillbjones