Altmetrics in Library and Information Science

Academia is becoming ever more subject to a focus on performance management, ranking, accountability, transparency, and commodification. These issues are playing out in a context of increased competition and ever-increasing productivity expectations. It is against this background that attention is being paid to new metrics of scholarly impact, or “altmetrics”. Altmetrics is the term applied to non-traditional measures of scholarly impact or influence, particularly using social media. This talk will present results of a multi-phase study that has examined acceptance and application of altmetrics in library and information science (LIS). The first phase, a survey of administrators (deans, directors, and chairs), found low adoption rates of altmetrics as standard tools to measure scholarship. A second phase analyzed the social media profiles of representative faculty members in the field and compared those profiles against traditional measures of scholarly impact. Dramatic variations in use of academic- and non-academic social media were found, as well as limited use of non-academic social media for scholarly purposes. A third phase analyzed tenure and promotion policies for departments/schools of LIS in North America. Results suggested that official tenure and promotion documents do not typically specify impact measures. Subsequent interviews with administrators provided additional context for those findings. The current phase of this ongoing research is expanding analysis of attitudes towards altmetrics by surveying doctoral students, faculty members, and administrators (deans, directors, and chairs) across a wide range of disciplines. These data will situate attitudes and practices in LIS within a larger multi-disciplinary context.