What Is Societal Impact and Where Do Altmetrics Fit into the Equation?

Holmberg, Kim; Bowman, Sarah Lynne; Bowman, Timothy D.; Didegah, Fereshteh; Kortelainen, Terttu

doi:10.29024/joa.21

Cited by 30 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The NAS report notes that understanding social networks and the diffusion of knowledge through social networks is one of the key issues related to the diffusion of evidence-based practices vexing multiple disciplines. Similarly, there is increased interest in the field of altmetrics to develop methods for identifying and measuring the societal impacts of research, one of which is social network analysis [30]. Recent advances in the field of altmetrics include identifying Facebook as an important yet underestimated medium for science and scholarly communication [31,32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusing science through social networks: The case of breastfeeding communication on Twitter

et al. 2020

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Breastfeeding is one of many health practices known to support the survival and health of mother and infant, yet low breastfeeding rates persist globally. These rates may be influenced by limited diffusion of evidence-based research and guidelines from the scientific community (SC). As recently highlighted by the National Academy of Sciences, there is a need for the SC to diffuse its findings to the public more effectively online, as means to counteract the spread of misinformation. In response to this call, we gathered data from Twitter for one month from major breastfeeding hashtags resulting in an interconnected social network (n = 3,798 users). We then identified 59 influencers who disproportionately influenced information flow using social network analysis. These influencers were from the SC (e.g. academics, researchers, health care practitioners), as well as interested citizens (IC) and companies. We then conducted an ego-network analysis of influencer networks, developed ego maps, and compared diffusion metrics across the SC, IC and company influencers. We also qualitatively analyzed their tweets (n = 711) to understand the type of information being diffused. SC influencers were the least efficient communicators. Although having the highest tweeting activity (80% of tweets), they did not reach more individuals compared to IC and companies (two-step ego size: 220± 99, 188 ± 124, 169 ± 97 respectively, P = 0.28). Content analysis of tweets suggest IC are more active than the SC in diffusing evidence-based breastfeeding knowledge, with 35% of their tweets around recent research findings compared to only 12% by the SC. Nonetheless, in terms of outreach to the general public, the two-step networks of SC influences were more heterogenous than ICs (55.7 ± 5.07, 50.9 ± 12.0, respectively, P<0.001). Collectively, these findings suggest SC influencers may possess latent potential to diffuse research and evidence-based practices. However, the research suggests specific ways to enhance diffusion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusing science through social networks: The case of breastfeeding communication on Twitter

et al. 2020

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“…As much of the research is funded by the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Research Program, which is federal funding provided to increase forestry research in the production, utilization, and protection of forestland, increased readership and downloads of natural resources articles in the SFASU ScholarWorks enhance the flow of information to users in educational, government, commercial, and organizational entities. The number of downloads indicates a measure of societal impact, as more downloads across a variety of user groups and countries expands the range of the articles (Holmberg 2019a). The purpose of the McIntire-Stennis program is to increase research on forest productivity, utilization, and protection; to train future forestry scientists; and to cooperate with other states in forestry research (Thompson & Bullard 2004;Bullard et al 2011;Rickenbach et al 2013;Allen 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The actual use of the information is determined in further exploration of citation uses in scientific search engines. Altmetrics also promote new forms of scholarly communication, with the goal of assessing the societal impact of research to identify and measure how a specific research document has been used and what kind of influence it has had, not just within academia but also beyond (Holmberg et al 2019a). Altmetrics are currently being investigated to determine if they could be used to assess societal impact of research.…”

Section: Plumx Altmetricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It covers more than 52.6 million artifacts, being the largest altmetrics aggregator (Ortega 2018a;Plum Analytics 2018). Altmetrics can be used to measure the impact that scientific articles have on society (Holmberg et al 2019a). PlumX is the primary altmetrics source for analysis of downloads and use of the natural resources materials from the SFASU ScholarWorks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Use of Altmetrics to Analyze ScholarWorks in Natural Resource Management

Kulhavy

Reynolds

Unger

et al. 2020

joa

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Digital preservation of library materials has increased the need for methods to access the documents and contents maintained in digital archives. The use of altmetrics to quantify the impact of scholarly works, including PlumX, is increasing readership by listing articles in reference services. The outreach from the digital repository ScholarWorks at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) highlights the impact within the natural resources community from Digital Commons, Forest Sciences Commons; and from the Natural Products Chemistry and Pharmacognosy Commons. The use of PlumX altmetrics was examined to evaluate usage, impact, and digital audience downloads for the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) at SFASU.

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“…As for societal impact, altmetrics can accomplish this in some capacity, but their value lies in offering a means for tracking and interpreting the source, context, and audience of the attention; one should not rely on the aggregation of the data to imply an approximation for societal impact (Holmberg et al, 2019).…”

Section: Alternative Indicators Of Research Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faculty Perceptions of Research Assessment at Virginia Tech

Miles

Pannabecker

Kuypers

2020

joa

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In the spring of 2019, survey research was conducted at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), a large, public, Carnegie-classified R1 institution in southwest Virginia, to determine faculty perceptions of research assessment as well as how and why they use researcher profiles and research impact indicators. The Faculty Senate Research Assessment Committee (FSRAC) reported the quantitative and qualitative results to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors to demonstrate the need for systemic, political, and cultural change regarding how faculty are evaluated and rewarded at the university for their research and creative projects. The survey research and subsequent report started a gradual process to move the university to a more responsible, holistic, and inclusive research assessment environment. Key results from the survey, completed by close to 500 faculty from across the university, include: a.) the most frequently used researcher profile systems and the primary ways they are used (e.g., profiles are used most frequently for showcasing work, with results indicating that faculty prefer to use a combination of systems for this purpose); b.) the primary reasons faculty use certain research impact indicators (e.g., number of publications is frequently used but much more likely to be used for institutional reasons than personal or professional reasons); c.) faculty feel that research assessment is most fair at the department level and least fair at the university level; and d.) faculty do not feel positively towards their research being assessed for the allocation of university funding.

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What Is Societal Impact and Where Do Altmetrics Fit into the Equation?

Cited by 30 publications

References 46 publications

Diffusing science through social networks: The case of breastfeeding communication on Twitter

Diffusing science through social networks: The case of breastfeeding communication on Twitter

Use of Altmetrics to Analyze ScholarWorks in Natural Resource Management

Faculty Perceptions of Research Assessment at Virginia Tech

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