Anup Kumar Das Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Altmetrics and the Changing Societal Needs of Research Communications at R&D Centres in an Emerging Country: A Case Study of India 2AM: 2nd Altmetrics Conference Session: Altmetrics as Indicators of Economic and Social Impact Presented on 7 th October 2015, at Amsterdam

Challenges Altmetrics Score or Citation Count are not given priority in impact measurement or research evaluation in most of the Indian universities/ research institutions. Research Funders in India don’t have appropriate strategy for considering Altmetrics Score in impact measurement or research evaluation or funding decision. University Grants Commission (UGC), apex body in University System in India, introduced Academic Performance Indicators (APIs) in 2010 for career advancement/ promotion. However, APIs do not seek an Altmetrics Score or a Citation Count for a published work. This demoralizes researchers/ faculty members having high Altmetrics Score or a Citation Counts. Few Indian Journals have taken appropriate initiative to derive Altmetric score from the journal website.

Exemplary Initiative for Improving Altmetric Score Only few research departments or centres in Indian universities have social media presence. Few of them maintain an active -based discussion forum or listserv for promoting scholarship and academic networking. CSSP (Centre for Studies in Science Nehru University) has taken exemplary initiative to promote published works emanated from the Centre. CSSP gets article alerts from the Google Scholar Alerts. Then CSSP shares information on every published work to social media channels, including: – Twitter – Facebook – Google+ – -based Discussion Forum – Research Blog – CSSP Website – Posts to Subject-Specific Multiple FB Groups and Listservs

Exemplary Initiative for Improving Altmetric Score CSSP’s Research Students also get training on how to create and maintain their academic profiles on – Academia.edu – ResearchGate.net – Linkedin.com – Google Scholar profile – Personal Blogs – Slideshare.net – Orcid.org Many of the Research Students maintain their academic profiles on these sites. Their academic profiles include List of Published Papers, Bibliographic Details and Hyperlinks to Full-text Contents.

Outreaching to Global Audience: Research Blog

Outreaching to Global Audience:

Outreaching to Global Audience: Facebook

Outreaching to STS Researchers in India: -Based Discussion Forum

Outreaching to Global Audience: Audio Archive

Open Access Repositories in Indian Universities Total No. of Universities in the Country as on (University Grants Commission): 733 Universities Total No. State Universities 336 Deemed to be Universities 127 Central Universities 46 Private Universities 224 Institutional Repositories of Indian Universities 70 OA Repositories from India are recorded in OpenDOAR – About 40+ Repositories from Indian Universities – About 5.5% Indian Universities Have OA Repositories

Notable OA Initiatives Shodhganga [Indian ETD INFLIBNET] A Repository for Theses and Dissertations from Indian Universities theses and dissertations uploaded as on Top 5 Contributing Universities – Jawaharlal Nehru University [4450+] – Gujarat University [2924+] – Anna University [2836+] – Mahatma Gandhi University [2080+] – Bundelkhand University [1690+] Shodhgangotri [Research in INFLIBNET] A Repository for Doctoral Research in Progress from Indian Universities

Shodhganga [Indian ETD INFLIBNET]

Open Access Harvestor and Central Platform

Open Access Institutional Repository from Department of Science and Technology (DST). [Non-Functional as on ]

Open Access Institutional Repository from Department of Biotechnology (DBT). [Non-Functional as on ]

Information and Media Literacy Toolkit for Altmetrics UNESCO Open Access Curricula for Researchers Module 4: Research Evaluation Metrics – UNIT 1: Introduction to Research Evaluation Metrics and Related Indicators – UNIT 2: Innovations in Measuring Science and Scholarship – UNIT 3: Article and Author Level Measurements – UNIT 4: Online Citation and Reference Management Tools

Conclusion Lack of research communications strategies in Indian universities. Published literatures remain unnoticed due to non-availability of dedicated and specialised research communicators in academic departments. Academic staff members such as Documentation Officers, Research Officers and Information Scientists can be engaged as departmental Research Communicators and Communications Strategists for promoting published research to worldwide research communities. Exemplary initiatives can be up-scaled and implemented across the universities and research institutions in India. Apex bodies, such as UGC, DST, DBT and CSIR, need to be proactive in promoting Altmetric and other modern impact measurement methods.

References Das, Anup Kumar (2015). Research Evaluation Metrics [Open Access for Researchers, 4]. Paris: UNESCO, ISBN: Das, Anup Kumar & Mishra, Sanjaya (2014). Genesis of Altmetrics or Article-level Metrics for Measuring Efficacy of Scholarly Communications: Current Perspectives. Journal of Scientometric Research, 3(2): Genesis of Altmetrics or Article-level Metrics for Measuring Efficacy of Scholarly Communications: Current Perspectives Das, D. N., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2014). Academic Performance Indicators: Straitjacketing Higher Education. Economic & Political Weekly, 49(50), Academic Performance Indicators: Straitjacketing Higher Education Sujatha, V. (2015). The Academic Performance Indicators Regime and Its Follies. Economic & Political Weekly, 50(5), The Academic Performance Indicators Regime and Its Follies UGC (2010). Proposed Scores for Academic Performance Indicators (APIs) in Recruitments and Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) Promotions of University / College Teachers.Proposed Scores for Academic Performance Indicators (APIs) in Recruitments and Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) Promotions of University / College Teachers

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