Scholarly communication and practices in the world of metrics: An exploratory study. Issue 1 (27th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Lai; Ladisch, Michael
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Volume 53:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 4
• Publication Date: 2016-12-27
• Subjects: Altmetrics -- Bibliometrics -- Epistemic Culture -- Scholarly Communication -- Research Performance -- Research Practices; Information science -- Congresses; Information technology -- Congresses; Information science; Information technology; Conference papers and proceedings; 020
• DOI: 10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301132
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2373-9231

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Metrics have become objective standards for evaluating research performance. Measurements such as citation counts and h‐index are used for evaluating individual research performance as well as the ranking of research institutions and universities. This exploratory study aims to understand the implications of the increasing use of metrics on scholarly communication and practices. A pilot study was conducted in universities in Ireland. Preliminary findings show that researchers use Google Scholar and ResearchGate for self‐monitoring and that they perceive bibliometric measures as indicators of achievements. The pilot study also shows that there are mixed feelings toward bibliometrics: while the participants emphasise that research interest is the most important criterion in choosing research topics and publication channels and that citation counts, h‐index, and RG scores are coincidental of their research activities, they also perceive the quantitative measures as objective evaluation of research performance without knowing how the h‐index or RG scores are calculated.