Social media for researchers
Today, researchers can promote their publications in ways that weren’t even imagined 20 years ago. Social media and networking sites are a legitimate resource used by researchers to disseminate their research and collaborate with others in their field. Besides popular forms of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, there are also a few that specifically focus on the research world and academia.
- Academia.eduAcademia.edu is a social networking site for academics. Researchers can immediately share their papers on this platform. They can then monitor who is looking at the research and the citation counts. Membership is free. However, upgrades are available for purchase with features such as additional metrics and enhanced analytics.
- ResearchGateResearchGate was originally set up as a social media network for researchers. It provides research sharing, statistics and citation count tracking, collaboration, and discussion of current research. ResearchGate has been the subject of a few copyright controversies. Their policy requires authors to take on responsibility for any potential copyright issues before posting. Copyright is not always straightforward, though. In practice, copyrighted articles have been made accessible through the site.
Metric categories
Authors and researchers can track and promote their research using many different metrics, or measures. Five categories developed by Plum Analytics help provide clear and user friendly areas to consider when tracking and promoting an article or resource.
Usage
This category counts the number of clicks or downloads for a resource. It keeps track of how often an article is read or a video us played.
Captures
This metric includes bookmarks and favorites. It is an indication of how many people have marked the resource to come back to later.
Mentions
This shows how often the resource is mentioned online in Blog posts, comments and reviews. It can give a quick look at what people are saying about the item.
Social media
Also known as alternative metrics, this category includes likes on Facebook and tweets on Twitter. This can be a good indication of how well promoted the research is and measures the attention that research is getting on social media.
Citations
This category tracks the number of times an item is cited by another item. It can show who is engaging with the research.
Promote & track
All metric categories, with the exception of citation counts, can be tracked immediately after publication. Using these metrics means you don’t have to wait years for an item to be cited before seeing the impact of the research. There are many online resources that can help you track or promote your research, and some that will do both.
- AltmetricThis site tracks research online and provides information on where research is mentioned and what it being said. Altmetrics tracks mentions on social media, blogs, and mainstream media.
- ImpactStoryThis nonprofit's mission is to make research more open and available. Their site allows users to create a profile, post work, and track research online through a variety of outlets, including Twitter, blogs, and news.
- KudosKudos helps promote and track research by helping disseminate research to other researchers in your field. It also tracks research through usage, social media, and citation metrics.
- MendeleyThis networking site can help promote research by sharing research and datasets and allowing for collaboration. The Profile page has a section for personal research statistics and a newsfeed to help keep members up to date with research in their field.
- NewsfloNewsflo, from Elsevier, tracks media coverage for researchers and institutions and integrates it with other Elsevier products, including Mendeley. Members can share research and stay on top of new and important work in their fields of study.
- ORCIDORCID is a non-profit organization that provides a personal digital identification number to researchers. It helps track research for specific individuals. Publishers, grant committees, and other researchers can easily see and track what individuals have published. This is especially useful when there are multiple authors with the same name.
- Social MentionThis website provides social media, mentions, and captures metrics for individuals and topics. It is not limited to research or academia. The site searches blogs; microblogs, such as Facebook posts & Tweets; news; comments; and videos across the web. It also provides a sentiment to rate the metric as positive, neutral, or negative.
- Plum AnalyticsPlum Analytics, also known as PlumX Metrics, tracks metrics in all of the five categories. When used in databases, they provide a succinct snapshot of each measure.
Library databases with metrics
Here are a few of the databases at Walden Library that provide journal and article metrics.
- Academic Search CompleteEBSCO databases, such as Academic Search Complete, provides article metrics through PlumX Metrics in all of its databases when available. These metrics include usage, captures, and citations. You can search in the EBSCO ebooks database or any of the other EBSCO databases for examples.
- Annual ReviewsAnnual Reviews tracks article metrics through citation tracking.
- Emerald InsightEmerald Insights tracks citations and lists the most read and most cited articles in their journals.
- IEEE Xplore Digital LibraryIEEE tracks citations through Google Scholar metrics and tracks online sharing through Altmetric.
- Neuroscience Information FrameworkNIF provides social media tracking on literature in its database through Altrmetic.
- ProQuest CentralProQuest will provide social media metrics through Altmetric and usage metrics through Mendeley when that information is available for articles or resources.
- SAGE JournalsSAGE Journals database provides social media and usage metrics through Altrmetric and Mendeley.
- ScholarWorksScholarworks provides download counts for individual items as well as an interactive map that tracks the number of downloads throughout the world.
- Taylor and Francis OnlineTaylor & Francis tracks views, citation counts, and social media article metrics.
- World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (The)This open access database tracks usage, mentions, and social media metrics.
