Interesting Reads
Researcher Profiles
There are many tools to generate research profiles on the web. While this page covers a brief overview of some of those tools, for a more in-depth analysis please see this guide by the Utrecht University Library.
Broadening your impact
Today, there are many new forms of scholarly publishing, networking and collaborating. Beyond the more traditional means of scholarly communication, researchers can now reach vast and distant audiences well beyond the borders of their research communities. This page provides links to some of these new tools for sharing work and connecting with potential collaborators. In addition, there are now tools that can be used to measure research impact in these non-traditional forms of scholarly communication, also referred to as 'altmetrics'.
Images from the University of British Columbia, UBC Library, "Building Your Academic Profile"; http://help.library.ubc.ca/publishing-research/building-your-academic-profile/
Connecting with the research community
Below are a few of the more widely used interdisciplinary, scholarly networking tools. Bear in mind that there are many discipline-specific online networking communities as well, serving to connect researchers in their own specialized subject areas.
- Academia.eduA platform created to allow researchers to share their research. Researchers in all disciplines can share their work and 'follow' others in their field.
- LinkedInA popular social networking tool for professionals in all fields. A LinkedIn profile is similar to an online CV, and makes finding people in particular fields of work or with particular affiliations easier.
- MendeleyPrimarily known as a citation management tool, Mendeley includes a social networking element that allows the sharing of research libraries and tracks downloads and views as an alternative research impact measurement.
- ResearchGateSimilar to Academia.edu, this platform facilitates sharing of research and collaboration with other researchers in your field.
New forms of scholarly publishing
Increasingly, researchers are sharing their work in non-traditional ways online. Here is a list of some online venues for new forms of scholarly communication.
- SlideShareA free online tool for uploading and sharing slide presentations. The number of downloads of your slides can be tracked and used as an alternative measure of research impact.
- FigshareProvides free, unlimited public space to upload files in any format to be visualized in a browser. Share such research products as figures, datasets, posters and presentations.
- TwitterTwitter can be used to share links and short messages with a large online community. Twitter is increasingly being used as a communication tool within research communities and as a tool to connect with potential collaborators at professional conferences and meetings.
- VimeoVimeo is a free online service for sharing and uploading video content.
- WordPressA free, easy-to-use web-based software for the creation of websites and blogs.
Alternative Impact Metrics
While most of this guide is dedicated to measuring the impact of research published in traditional scholarly journals, the new forms of scholarly communication mentioned on this page are increasingly being tapped for impact metrics. Here are a few emerging tools for measuring impact within traditional publishing but incorporating these new forms of scholarly communication and research sharing.
- Altmetrics DirectoryThis website provides a growing directory of tools to measure alternative forms of research impact metrics.
- Our ResearchOur Research provides open source tools to support scholarly research.
- Plum AnalyticsThis service aims to provide a more comprehensive measure of a researcher's scholarly impact by gathering data about usage of data sets, open access publications, presentations, blogs and other types of scholarly communication.