SPEC Kit 346: Scholarly Output Assessment Activities · 39
Our Publishing Outreach librarian is particularly skilled in this area; she knows this stuff. Not sure if there are any
particular skills other than knowing the landscape out there.
Overview of options, experimentation with Excel and other free tools
Project management and leadership, communication with faculty and others, library publishing, product expertise, how
to be forward thinking, scholarly communication focus
Scopus training
Selected examples: extracting DOIs from library databases for article-level metric analysis, creating customized reports
in Google Analytics
Several staff members have received training in altmetrics.
Skills are developed as needed, but demand is currently low.
The use of metrics offered by various software programs
Understanding of Altmetrics
Understanding of different metrics; proficiency with Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar
Understanding of newer measures of article impact, including h-index, Eigenfactor, altmetrics data, etc. A better
understanding of how Excel can be used to manipulate citation data.
Understanding the various altmetrics measures, and understanding what our administrative units prefer for measures.
Using Endnote and Zotero to harvest citations, familiarity with h-Index
Using social network analysis tools, Excel, and other software.
We have run a number of internal seminars providing librarians with training on the principles of bibliometric assessment
of research outputs as well as information on the needs and uses of such information by researchers (e.g., grant
applications, tenure and promotion, etc.) Librarians were also encouraged to test research assessment tools we had on
a trial period available to Pitt community.
14. Please enter any additional comments you have on scholarly output assessment training. N=16
A lot of our training is informal: one-on-one research consultations with faculty, open meetings, brown bag lunches.
An area for development for us
As above, there are individuals within the Libraries here who work to better educate themselves about scholarly output
assessment, but there is no program across the Libraries to do so.
At present, the scholarly output assessment training discussed above also occurs on an ad hoc basis rather than in a
programmatic way.
Hard to teach use of these tools across disciplines, perceptions are that much of this is only related to science/STEM
fields, not humanities.
Interestingly, librarians perceive research assessment as a brand new skill and often do not understand why such service
could be delivered from a library.
More to come