Social Network Analysis

Social media has become integrated into the fabric of the scholarly communication system in fundamental ways, principally through scholarly use of social media platforms and the promotion of new indicators on the basis of interactions with these platforms. Research and scholarship in this area has accelerated since the coining and subsequent advocacy for altmetrics—that is, research indicators based on social media activity. This review provides an extensive account of the state-of-the art in both scholarly use of social media and altmetrics. The review consists of 2 main parts: the first examines the use of social media in academia, reviewing the various functions these platforms have in the scholarly communication process and the factors that affect this use. The second part reviews empirical studies of altmetrics, discussing the various interpretations of altmetrics, data collection and methodological limitations, and differences according to platform. The review ends with a critical discussion of the implications of this transformation in the scholarly communication system.

Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics: A review of the literature

Social media has become integrated into the fabric of the scholarly communication system in fundamental ways: principally through scholarly use of social media platforms and the promotion of new indicators on the basis of interactions with these platforms. Research and scholarship in this area has accelerated since the coining and subsequent advocacy for altmetrics -- that is, research indicators based on social media activity. This review provides an extensive account of the state-of-the art in both scholarly use of social media and altmetrics. The review consists of two main parts: the first examines the use of social media in academia, examining the various functions these platforms have in the scholarly communication process and the factors that affect this use. The second part reviews empirical studies of altmetrics, discussing the various interpretations of altmetrics, data collection and methodological limitations, and differences according to platform. The review ends with a critical discussion of the implications of this transformation in the scholarly communication system.

Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics: a review of the literature

Many open access journals have a reputation for being of low quality and being dishonest with regard to peer review and publishing costs. Such journals are labeled “predatory” journals. This study examines author profiles for some of these “predatory” journals as well as for groups of more well‐recognized open access journals. We collect and analyze the publication record, citation count, and geographic location of authors from the various groups of journals. Statistical analyses verify that each group of journals has a distinct author population. Those who publish in “predatory” journals are, for the most part, young and inexperienced researchers from developing countries. We believe that economic and sociocultural conditions in these developing countries have contributed to the differences found in authorship between “predatory” and “nonpredatory” journals.

Who Publishes in “Predatory” Journals?

Many open access journals have a reputation for being of low quality and being dishonest with regard to peer review and publishing costs. Such journals are labeled "predatory" journals. This study examines author profiles for some of these "predatory" journals as well as for groups of more well-recognized open access journals. We collect and analyze the publication record, citation count, and geographic location of authors from the various groups of journals. Statistical analyses verify that each group of journals has a distinct author population. Those who publish in "predatory" journals are, for the most part, young and inexperienced researchers from developing countries. We believe that economic and sociocultural conditions in these developing countries have contributed to the differences found in authorship between "predatory" and "nonpredatory" journals.

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Who publishes in predatory journals

Open access facilitates the availability and distribution of scholarly communication freely, as a means and effort to solve the problem of inaccessibility, primarily due to financial constraints, particularly in the developing countries. In India there has been a gradual realization of the usefulness of open access among various institutions. Various open access initiatives have been undertaken and are operational. Many are in the developmental stage. Some initiatives have also been taken in the area of metadata harvesting services particularly public funded ones. The future of open access in India is dependent upon a proper policy and developing a proper framework. In the implementation of open access, LIS professionals should play a proactive role in the growth of collections in institutional repositories. The paper provides an overview about the present state of open access initiatives by various institutions of the country.

/pdf/open-access-and-institutional-repositories-a-developing-51v74tujdu.pdf

Open Access and Institutional Repositories, A Developing Country Perspective: a case study of India

Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the evolution of open educational resources OER initiatives in India – how OER movement emerges from the open access movement in the backdrop of an emerging knowledge‐based economy. This paper also illustrates how OER help in democratizing lifelong learning spaces that eventually help in skills development.Design/methodology/approach – This paper primarily uses baseline surveys and recommendations of different working groups of Indian National Knowledge Commission. Relevant policy instruments of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, UNESCO, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and other national and international bodies are also critically examined to understand India's stand on OER in comparison with other promising developing countries. This paper analyses impact of OER on Indian systems of education, ranging from lifelong learning, technical and vocational education and training to higher education systems....

Emergence of open educational resources (OER) in India and its impact on lifelong learning

The study covers 2800 citations appended to 152 articles published in 2001 in eight scholarly journals published by National Institute of Science Communication & Information Resources. In all , 7426 authors are figuring in the citations. On average, there are 18 citations per article and 3 authors per citation. The high percentage multi-authored citations clearly indicates dominance of team research in the concerned fields. On average, journal articles account about 79 percent of the citations. Monographs rank second with a tally of about 12 per cent. Indian Journal of Marine Science receives high percentage of journal self-citation compare to others whereas Indian Journal of Chemistry Section B receives high percentage of author self-citation compared to others. Indian citation received by all journals figure only 10% on average.

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/4142/1/ALIS%2049%284%29%20127-134.pdf

A Comparative Study of Citation Patterns among Eight Scholarly Journals Published by National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources

The Article-level metrics or altmetrics becomes a new trendsetter in recent times for measuring impact of scientific publications and their social outreach to intended audiences. The popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and social bookmarks such as Mendeley and CiteULike are nowadays widely used for communicating research to larger transnational audiences. In 2012, the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) got signed by the scientific and researchers communities across the world. This Declaration has given preference to the article-level metrics (ALM) or altmetrics over traditional but faulty journal impact factor (JIF)-based assessment of career scientists. JIF does not consider impact or influence beyond citations count, as this count reflected only through Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science® database. Also JIF provides indicator related to a journal, but not related to a published paper. Thus, altmetrics now becomes an alternative metrics for performance assessment of individual scientists and their contributed scholarly publications. This paper provides a glimpse of genesis of altmetrics in measuring efficacy of scholarly communications. This paper also highlights available altmetric tools and social platforms linking altmetric tools, which are widely used in deriving altmetric scores of scholarly publications.

/pdf/genesis-of-altmetrics-or-article-level-metrics-for-measuring-1elgzcoflf.pdf

Anup Kumar Das

Papers

Open Access and Institutional Repositories, A Developing Country Perspective: a case study of India

Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement

Emergence of open educational resources (OER) in India and its impact on lifelong learning

A Comparative Study of Citation Patterns among Eight Scholarly Journals Published by National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources

Genesis of altmetrics or article‑level metrics for measuring efficacy of scholarly communications: Current perspectives