PlumX: a tool to showcase academic profile and distinction
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-12-2016-0047 |
| Pages | 305-313 |
| Published date | 13 November 2017 |
| Date | 13 November 2017 |
| Author | Elise Y. Wong,Sarah M. Vital |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
PlumX: a tool to showcase
academic profile and distinction
Elise Y. Wong and Sarah M. Vital
Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga, California, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The Saint Mary’s College of California(SMC) library plays an integral role in supportingone of
the goals in the College’sStrategic Plan: “Raise the Academic Profile and Distinction”.This case study aims to
assess the effectiveness of PlumX as a tool to showcase the academic profile and distinction of SMC. The
library recognizes the importance of capturing impact of non-traditional creativity and engagement in
additionto just traditional impact metrics of research.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper describes the collaborativeeffort of the College and the
College’slibrary to identify faculty scholarship, creativityand engagement and collect data demonstratingthe
impact of the works. Traditional metrics,like citation counts, do not do SMC faculty justice because faculty
scholarship comes beyond just books and articles. To more fully document the real intellectual corpus the
College, the library is working with a new system, PlumX, to collect web-based information about both
traditionallyand non-traditionally published work.
Findings –The collection of metrics across five categories (citations, usage, social media, mentions and
captures), and the flexibility of displaying on screen or downloading for use in other analytic reports made
possible through PlumX proved to be a start toward demonstrating the academic distinction of College’s
uniquefaculty. SMC will continue to partnerwith PlumX to assess and improve its usabilityand effectiveness.
Originality/value –This paper outlines how altmetrics can be used to measure and share impact of
faculty research at a liberal arts, teaching-focused college in ways reflective of the unique intellectual
contributions.
Keywords Altmetrics, Research impact, Bibliometrics, Faculty scholarship output, Plum analytics,
PlumX metrics
Paper type Case study
The library at Saint Mary’s College of California (SMC) plays an integral role in supporting one of
the goals in the College’sStrategicPlan:“Raise the Academic Profile and Distinction”.While
faculty publications have always been an important part of SMC library collection development,
the library also recognizes the importance of capturing the research impact of faculty members.
Traditional metrics, such as citation metrics, are not always adequate to represent the true impact
of faculty scholarship. Faculty works come in various forms, and their social presence on the Web
is often not recorded. To more fully document the intellectual corpus of SMC, the library has been
experimenting with PlumX. This new altmetrics tool collects web-based information about
traditionally and non-traditionally published works, for example, interacting with community
groups, giving interviews and producing creative works. This case study looks at how a liberal
arts college has used altmetrics to help address a campus initiative to better report the impact of
faculty research, creative works and engagement in the world.
Bibliometrics and altmetrics
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development defines bibliometrics as “a
statistical analysis of books, articles, or other publications”(OECD, 2013). Bibliometrics
such as citation counts and journal impact factors have long been used as traditional
PlumX: a tool
to showcase
academic
profile
305
Received 15 December 2016
Revised 17 January 2017
Accepted 30 January 2017
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.33 No. 4, 2017
pp. 305-313
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-12-2016-0047
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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