Challenges of capturing engagement on Facebook for Altmetrics

Previous research shows that, despite its popularity, Facebook is less frequently used to share academic content. In order to investigate this discrepancy we set out to explore engagement numbers through their Graph API by querying the Facebook API with multiple URLs for a random set of 103,539 articles from the Web of Science. We identified two major challenge areas: mapping articles to URLs and the mapping URLs to objects inside Facebook. We then explored three problem cases within our dataset: (1) identifying a landing page for any given URL, (2) instances where equivalent URLs are mapped to different Facebook objects, and (3) instances of different articles being mapped onto the same Facebook object. We found that the engagement numbers for 11.8% of all articles that have been shared on Facebook at least once are not reliable because of these problems. Moreover, we were unable to identify the URL for 11.6% of the articles in our data. Taken together, the three problem cases constitute 12.3% of the 103,539 tested articles for which engagement numbers cannot be relied upon. Given that we only tested a small number of problem cases and URL variants, our results point to large challenges facing those wishing to collect Facebook metrics programatically through the available API.Comment: To be presented at the 23rd International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators (STI 2018

Altmetrics could enable scholarship from developing countries to receive due recognition.

The Web of Science and its corresponding Journal Impact Factor are inadequate for an understanding of the impact of scholarly work from developing regions, argues Juan Pablo Alperin. Alternative metrics offer the opportunity to redirect incentive structures towards problems that contribute to development, or at least to local priorities. But the altmetrics community needs to actively engage with scholars from developing regions to ensure the new metrics do not continue to cater to well-known and well-established networks

La Reinterpretación de Visibilidad y Calidad en las Nuevas Políticas de Evaluación de Revistas Científicas

This study analyzes the development of Latin American scientific publications from 1980 to present day in the context of the scientific assessment policies during that period. The analysis leads to the proposal of three eras in the development of Latin American scientific journals, which are analyzed in relation to the creation of regional systems such as Latindex, SciELO, and RedALyC. In the context of the third period –“internationalization”– the new journal evaluation policies of Mexico and Colombia (2016) are further analyzed and inconsistencies with the objectives of the previous periods are identified. In particular, the document analysis highlights how these policies shift the discourse and approach away from those seeking visibility and quality and towards citation as the only valued measure of publications. This change in approach is discussed along with the perceived advances and setbacks from the previous periods. The authors conclude that the scientific community would do well to return to the principles and values established in the first two periods where science and scientific publications were moving towards a regional and cooperative model under the governance of the scientific community. &nbsp

Advancing Open at Simon Fraser University: the Faculty and Student Experience

Over the past three years, open advocates at Simon Fraser University have been successful in advancing the open agenda on campus. As an early career faculty member, Dr. Juan Pablo Alperin has already played a leading role in openness at SFU. Dr. Alperin will share his work in advancing scholarly communications at SFU which include passing Canada’s second institutional open access policy and changing the tenure and promotion requirements within his department to include openness. Brady Yano is a former student leader from Simon Fraser University. During his two year\u27s spent on the board of the Simon Fraser Student Society, Brady was a vocal advocate for open educational resources (OER), and led a successful campaign called #textbookbrokeBC. His presentation will provide an overview of his journey as a young open advocate and will explore some of the challenges and opportunities of influencing institutional culture as an undergraduate student

A Spatio-Temporal Model for the Evaluation of Education Quality in Peru

The role of information and communication technologies in the development of modern societies has continuously increased over the past several decades. In particular, recent unprecedented growth in use of the Internet in many developing countries has been accompanied by greater information access and use. Along with this increased use, there have been significant advances in the development of technologies that can support the management and decision-making functions of decentralized government. However, the amount of data available to administrators and planners is increasing at a faster rate than their ability to use these resources effectively. A key issue in this context is the storage and retrieval of spatial and temporal data. With static data, a planner or analyst is limited to studying cross-sectional snapshots and has little capability to understand trends or assess the impacts of policies. Education, which is a vital part of the human experience and one of the most important aspects of development, is a spatio-temporal process that demands the capacities to store and analyze spatial distributions and temporal sequences simultaneously. Local planners must not only be able to identify problem areas, but also know if a problem is recent or on-going. They must also be able to identify factors which are causing problems for remediation and, most importantly, to assess the impact of remedial interventions. Internet-based tools that allow for fast and easy on-line exploration of spatio-temporal data will better equip planners for doing all of the above. This thesis presents a spatio-temporal on-line data model using the concept or paradigm of space-time. The thesis demonstrates how such a model can be of use in the development of customized software that addresses the evaluation of early childhood education quality in Peru

On the Peripheries of Scholarly Infrastructure: A Look at the Journals Using Open Journal Systems

The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is a research and development initiative of Simon Fraser University and Stanford University, with a focus on understanding and building enhanced modes of scholarly communication that facilitate open access, high quality publishing, and local capacity building and participation. One of the most significant contributions from PKP has been the development of its free, open source Open Journal Systems (OJS) software. Although some existing publishers have made use of the system, the majority of OJS users are new to publishing and are based in academia, either through library publishing programs or by individual "scholar-publishers," determined to build communities of interest around their research areas (Edgar & Willinsky, 2010). Most are small-scale, often operating with in-kind contributions and minimal budgets (Edgar & Willinsky, 2010). This type of use suggests an increased participation in scholarship, both in terms of who publishes and who read

Medindo, classificando, apoiando e fortalecendo a publicação científica em acesso aberto no Brasil

This study assesses the extent and nature of open access scholarly publishing in Brazil, one of the world’s leaders in providing universal access to its research and scholarship. It utilizes Brazil’s Qualis journal evaluation system, along with other relevant data bases to address the association between scholarly quality and open access in the Brazilian context. Through cross tabulation among these various data sets, it is possible to arrive at a reasonably accurate picture of journals, systems, ratings, and disciplines. The study establishes reliable measures and counts of Brazilian scholarly publications, the proportion and types of open access, and journals ratings and by disciplinary field. It finds that the better the Brazilian journal, the more likely it is to be open access. It also finds that Qualis ranks Brazilian journals lower overall than the international journals in which Brazilian authors publish, most notably in the field of the biological sciences. The study concludes with a consideration of the policy implications for building on the country’s global leadership in open access to strengthen the quality of its global contribution to knowledge. Este estudio analiza la naturaleza y el alcance de las publicaciones de acceso abierto en Brasil, uno de los líderes mundiales a nivel de acceso abierto a la investigación. En es estudio se utiliza el sistema Brasilero de evaluación de revistas Qualis junto con otras bases de datos pertinentes para explorar la relación entre la calidad académica y el acceso abierto en el contexto brasileño. Al cruzar estos diversos conjuntos de datos, se obtiene un panorama razonable de las revistas, sistemas, evaluaciones y disciplinas. El estudio establece medidas y conteos de las publicaciones académicas brasileñas, la proporción y tipos de acceso abierto así como sus evaluaciones por disciplina. Entre los hallazgos queda claro que cuanto mejor sea la evaluación de las revista brasileña, más probable es que sea de acceso abierto. También se encuentra que, dentro del sistema Qualis, las revistas brasileñas son evaluadas por debajo de las revistas internacionales en las que publican autores brasileños, sobre todo en el campo de las ciencias biológicas. El estudio concluye con una consideración sobre las consecuencias de las políticas que pueden capitalizar sobre el liderazgo global del país en el acceso abierto para fortalecer la calidad de su contribución al conocimiento mundial. Este estudo avalia a extensão e a natureza da publicação científica em Acesso Aberto no Brasil, um dos países líderes no mundo na disponibilização de acesso universal à pesquisa e ao conhecimento. É utilizado o Sistema Qualis de Avaliação de Periódicos, juntamente com outras relevantes bases de dados para abordar a associação entre a qualidade da produção científica e o acesso aberto dentro do contexto brasileiro. Por meio de tabulação cruzada entre os vários conjuntos de dados, é possível chegar a um panorama razoavelmente preciso em termos do número de periódicos, sistemas, classificações e áreas de atuação. O estudo apresenta uma confiável medida e contagem do número de publicações científicas no Brasil, a proporção e o tipo de acesso aberto e as classificações dos periódicos por áreas temáticas. É constatado que quanto melhores classificados os periódicos científicos, maiores as chances de que estes estejam em acesso aberto. Também mostra que o sistema Qualis classifica periódicos brasileiros de modo inferior, se comparado com as classificações dadas para as revistas internacionais em que autores brasileiros publicam, principalmente no campo das ciências biológicas. Por fim, são  traçadas considerações sobre as implicações políticas para a construção de liderança mundial do país em acesso aberto, com vistas à reforçar a qualidade da sua contribuição global para o conhecimento

Introducing Texture: An Open Source WYSIWYG Javascript Editor for JATS

Texture is a WYSIWYG editor app that allows users to turn raw content into structured content, and add as much semantic information as needed for the production of scientific publications. Texture is open source software built on top of Substance (http://substance.io), an advanced Javascript content authoring library. While the Substance library is format agnostic, the Texture editor uses JATS XML as a native exchange format. The Substance library that Texture is built on already supports real-time collaborative authoring, and the easy-to-use WYSIWYG interface would make Texture an attractive alternative to Google Docs. For some editors, the interface could be toggled to more closely resemble a professional XML suite, allowing a user to pop out a raw attribute editor for any given element. Textureauthored documents could then be brought into the journal management system directly, skipping the conversion step, and move straight into a document-centric publishing workflow. &nbsp

The reinterpretation of the visibility and quality of new policies to assess scientific publications

Se analiza el desarrollo de las revistas científicas latinoamericanas a partir de 1980 y se relaciona con las políticas de evaluación científica de la región que se establecieron en esa época. Se propone una periodización en tres etapas de la evolución de las revistas científicas latinoamericanas y su relación con la creación de sistemas regionales: Latindex, SciELO y RedALyC. En el contexto de la tercera etapa –de “internacionalización”– se profundiza el estudio observando en detalle algunas inconsistencias de las nuevas políticas de México y Colombia (2016), con relación a los objetivos regionales de las dos primeras etapas –la emergente y la de consolidación. Se resalta cómo estas políticas señalan un cambio de discurso y enfoque que pone a las citaciones como la medida más valorada. Se reflexiona finalmente acerca de los nuevos rumbos de evaluación de revistas científicas de la región , tanto avances como retrocesos, respecto a las primeras etapas. Se concluye que sería del todo auspicioso si la evaluación de revistas y la de la ciencia latinoamericana volviera a los principios y valores bajo un modelo cooperativo, regional, y gobernado por la misma comunidad científica.This study analyzes the development of Latin American scientific publications from 1980 to present day in the context of the scientific assessment policies during that period. The analysis leads to the proposal of three eras in the development of Latin American scientific journals, which are analyzed in relation to the creation of regional systems such as Latindex, SciELO, and RedALyC. In the context of the third period -“internationalization”-the new journal evaluation policies of Mexico and Colombia (2016) are further analyzed and inconsistencies with the objectives of the previous periods are identified. In particular, the document analysis highlights how these policies shift the discourse and approach away from those seeking visibility and quality and towards citation as the only valued measure of publications. This change in approach is discussed along with the perceived advances and setbacks from the previous periods. The authors conclude that the scientific community would do well to return to the principles and values established in the first two periods where science and scientific publications were moving towards a regional and cooperative model under the governance of the scientific community.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

The reinterpretation of the visibility and quality of new policies to assess scientific publications

Se analiza el desarrollo de las revistas científicas latinoamericanas a partir de 1980 y se relaciona con las políticas de evaluación científica de la región que se establecieron en esa época. Se propone una periodización en tres etapas de la evolución de las revistas científicas latinoamericanas y su relación con la creación de sistemas regionales: Latindex, SciELO y RedALyC. En el contexto de la tercera etapa –de “internacionalización”– se profundiza el estudio observando en detalle algunas inconsistencias de las nuevas políticas de México y Colombia (2016), con relación a los objetivos regionales de las dos primeras etapas –la emergente y la de consolidación. Se resalta cómo estas políticas señalan un cambio de discurso y enfoque que pone a las citaciones como la medida más valorada. Se reflexiona finalmente acerca de los nuevos rumbos de evaluación de revistas científicas de la región , tanto avances como retrocesos, respecto a las primeras etapas. Se concluye que sería del todo auspicioso si la evaluación de revistas y la de la ciencia latinoamericana volviera a los principios y valores bajo un modelo cooperativo, regional, y gobernado por la misma comunidad científica.This study analyzes the development of Latin American scientific publications from 1980 to present day in the context of the scientific assessment policies during that period. The analysis leads to the proposal of three eras in the development of Latin American scientific journals, which are analyzed in relation to the creation of regional systems such as Latindex, SciELO, and RedALyC. In the context of the third period -“internationalization”-the new journal evaluation policies of Mexico and Colombia (2016) are further analyzed and inconsistencies with the objectives of the previous periods are identified. In particular, the document analysis highlights how these policies shift the discourse and approach away from those seeking visibility and quality and towards citation as the only valued measure of publications. This change in approach is discussed along with the perceived advances and setbacks from the previous periods. The authors conclude that the scientific community would do well to return to the principles and values established in the first two periods where science and scientific publications were moving towards a regional and cooperative model under the governance of the scientific community.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació