Altmetrics and ethics in scientific evaluation: guidelines, challenges and recommendations for responsible practice

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/biblios.2024.1142

Keywords:

Responsible metrics, Altmetrics, Ethic, The Metric Tide, Leiden Manifesto, Statement for the Declaration for the Evaluation of Research (DORA)

Abstract

Objective. Reflect on the ethical aspects to be considered in the development and use of altmetric indicators

Method. Bibliographic and documentary research that, through a narrative survey of the literature and reflective analysis, sought elements to postulate discussions regarding ethics in altmetric research.

Results. The recommendations of the analyzed documents are directly related to scientific integrity and Open Science guidelines, influencing the robustness and credibility of the altmetric indicator. Effective adherence by researchers to these recommendations supports the development, use and communication of responsible metrics.

Conclusions. The cases of misconduct portrayed in the literature and mentioned in this research must be deepened, but examples here include a lack of alignment with the recommendations highlighted in global initiatives, which directly impact the ethical aspects to be considered in the preparation and use of altmetric indicators, or that is, in responsible metrics to be adopted in scientific production with almetric support.

Author Biographies

Marcia Regina da Silva, Universidade de São Paulo

Graduação em Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação pela Universidade Federal de São Carlos (1999) e Doutorado em Educação pela Universidade Federal de São Carlos (2008). Docente do Departamento de Educação, Informação e Comunicação da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo e credenciada no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade da UFSCar (PPGCTS/UFSCar). 

Ednéia Silva Santos Rocha, University of São Paulo

Professora doutora de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação na Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo (FFCLRP/USP). Doutorado em Política Científica e Tecnológica pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), mestrado em Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade pela Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) e graduação em Biblioteconomia pela Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP). 

Ana Paula Meneses Alves, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Doutora em Ciência da Informação pela Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências - Unesp - Campus Marília em regime de cotutela com a Universidade de Granada - Espanha, na qual recebeu o título de Doutora em Ciências Sociais. Mestre em Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade pela Universidade Federal de São Carlos. Bacharel em Biblioteconomia pela Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências - Unesp - Campus Marília. Professora Adjunta da Escola de Ciência da Informação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, atuando nos cursos de Graduação de Biblioteconomia e Museologia e na Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação (Nível - Mestrado e Doutorado). Líder no Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre Recursos, Serviços e Práxis Informacionais (NERSI- UFMG). Faz parte do "Grupo de Pesquisa Comportamento e Competência informacionais" da Universidade Estadual Paulista - Unesp - Campus Marília e do "Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre Métricas da Informação" da Universidade de São Paulo - USP - Ribeirão Preto. Membro da Associação de Bibliotecários de Minas Gerais e da Federação Brasileira de Bibliotecários, Cientistas da Informação e Instituições (Febab). Associada à Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação (Ancib). Membro da Rede Brasileira de Letramento em Saúde REBRALS. Foi a primeira Coordenadora e uma das responsáveis pela criação do Grupo de Trabalho Relações Étnico-Raciais e Decolonialidades da Febab (2020-2021). Foi membro do Grupo de Trabalho de Competência em Informação, da FEBAB, no período de 2020-2021. Atual Coordenadora do Centro de Estudos Africanos da UFMG. 

 

Danilo do Rosário Trindade, University of São Paulo

Discente do curso de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação pela FFCLRP-USP.

References

BENEDICTUS, R.; MIEDEMA, F.; FERGUSON, M. W.J. (2016). Fewer numbers, better science. Nature, 538 (7626), pp. 453 – 455. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/538453a. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/538453a

BORNMANN, L.; HAUNSCHILD, R. (2018). Normalization of zero-inflated data: an empirical analysis of a new indicator family and its use with altmetrics data. Journal of Informetrics, 12 (3), pp. 998-1011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.01.010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.01.010

CORDEIRO, A .M.; OLIVEIRA, G. M. de; RENTERIA, J. M.; GUIMARÃES, C. A. (2007). Revisão sistemática: uma revisão narrative. Revista do Colégio Brasileiro de Cirurgiões, 34 (6). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-69912007000600012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-69912007000600012

COSTAS, R.; ZAHEDI, Z.; WOUTERS, P. (2015). Do “altmetrics” correlate with citations? Extensive comparison of altmetric indicators with citations from a multidisciplinar perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66 (10), pp.2003-2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23309. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23309

CHEN, P-Y; HAYES, E.; LARIVIERE, V.; SUGIMOTO, C. R. (2018). Correction: Social reference managers and their users: A survey of demographics and ideologies. Plos one, 13 (8): e0202315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198033. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202315

DEVRIENDT, T.; SHABANI, M.; BORRY, P. (2021). Data sharing in biomedical sciences: a systematic review of incentives. Biopreservation and Biobanking, 19 (3), pp. 219-227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/bio.2020.0037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/bio.2020.0037

FANG, F.; CASADEVALL, A. (2011). Retracted Science and the Retraction Index. Infection and Immunity, 79 (10), pp.3855 – 3859. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.05661-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/IAI.05661-11

FLATT, J. W.; BLASIMME, A.; VAYENA, E. Improving the measurement of scientific success by reporting a self-citation index. Publications, 5 (3), pp. 20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/publications5030020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/publications5030020

GASPARYAN, A. Y.; YESSIRKEPOV, M.; VOTONOV, A.; KOROLEVA, A.M.; KITAS, G. D. A. (2019). Comprehensive approach to open access publishing: platforms and tools. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 34 (27). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2019.34.e184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2019.34.e184

GINGRAS, Y. (2016). Os desvios da avaliação da pesquisa: o bom uso da bibliometria. Tradução de Carlos Deanne. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. da UFRJ.

HICKS, Diana et al. (2015). Bibliometrics: the Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature, 520 (7548,) pp. 429-431. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/520429a. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/520429a

ISLAM, G.; GREENWOOD, M. (2022). The Metrics of Ethics and the Ethics of Metrics. Journal of Business Ethics, 175, pp.1–5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-05004-x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-05004-x

JAN, R.; ZAINAB, T. (2018). The impact story of retracted articles altmetric it!. In: 2018 5th International Symposium on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Libraries and Information Services (ETTLIS). IEEE, pp. 1-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ETTLIS.2018.8485245

JENKINS, D. (2021). O que são métricas responsáveis? Tradução livre por Leonardo Silveira Paiva. Ciência da Informação Express, 2 (1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13626047. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60144/v2i.2021.79

MARQUES, F. (2013). Os limites do índice-h: supervalorização do indicador que combina quantidade e qualidade da produção científica gera controvérsia. Revista Pesquisa Fapesp, 207. https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/os-limites-do-indice-h/.

MARQUES, F. (2018). Métricas responsáveis: empresa que calcula o fator de impacto de revistas científicas passa a divulgar dados que mostram o contexto de seus resultados. Revista Pesquisa Fapesp, 270. https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/metricas-responsaveis/.

PANAHI, S.; SOLEIMANPOUR, S. (2021). The landscape of the characteristics, citations, scientific, technological, and altmetrics impacts of retracted papers in hematology. Accountability in Research, 30 (7), pp.363-378. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2021.1990049. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2021.1990049

PETRIC, M. Declaration of San Francisco on valuation research: The introduction of science in the evaluation of scientific work (2013). Revija za sociologiju, 43 (2), pp. 183–186. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5613/rzs.43.2.4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5613/rzs.43.2.4

POZDNYAKOV, A.; ALABOUSI, M.; PATLAS, M. N. (2023). The growing role of social media for research and education in radiology. Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, 104 (6), pp. 265-268, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diii.2023.01.007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diii.2023.01.007

PRIEM, J. et al. (2010). Altmetrics: a manifesto. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1187&context=scholcom.

PUNIÇÃO para citações combinadas. (2013). Revista Pesquisa Fapesp, 213. https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/punicao-para-citacoes-combinadas/.

REGAN, Á.; HENCHION, M. (2019). Making sense of altmetrics: the perceived threats and opportunities for academic identity. Science and Public Policy, 46 (4), pp. 479-489. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scz001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scz001

SHAMSI, A.; LUND, B. D.; SEYYEDHOSSEINI, S. (2022). Sharing of retracted COVID-19 articles: an altmetric study. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 110 (1), pp. 97. https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1269

SUGIMOTO, C.; WORK, S.; LARIVIÈRE, V.; HAUSTEIN, S. (2017). Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics: a review of the literature. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68 (9). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23833. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23833

THE LEIDEN Manifesto for Research Metrics. (2018). https://researchimpact.ca/archived/the-leiden-manifesto-for-research-metrics/.

THE METRIC tide: review of metrics in research assessment. (2015). https://www.ukri.org/publications/review-of-metrics-in-research-assessment-and-management/

TUNGER, D.; CLERMONT, M.; MEIER, A. (2018). Altmetrics: state of the Art and a Look into the Future. Scientometrics, 123-134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76874 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76874

VALÉRIO, P. M.; PINHEIRO, L. V. R. Da comunicação científica à divulgação. (2008). Transinformação, 20 (2), pp. 159-169. http://www.scielo.br/pdf/tinf/v20n2/04. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-37862008000200004

WILSDON, J. R. et al. (2017). Next-generation metrics: responsible metrics and evaluation for open science. Report of the European Commission Expert Group on Altmetrics. Next-generation metrics: responsible metrics and evaluation for open science - White Rose Research Online.

WALTMAN, L.; COSTAS, R. F1000 recommendations as a potential new data source for research evaluation: a comparison with citations. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65 (3), pp. 433-445. https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.23040. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23040

Downloads

Published

2024-10-28

How to Cite

Silva, M. R. da, Rocha, E. S. S., Alves, A. P. M., & Trindade, D. do R. (2024). Altmetrics and ethics in scientific evaluation: guidelines, challenges and recommendations for responsible practice. Biblios Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, (87), e002. https://doi.org/10.5195/biblios.2024.1142

Issue

No. 87 (2024): Production and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges

Section

Original

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Marcia Regina da Silva, Ednéia Silva Santos Rocha, Ana Paula Meneses Alves, Danilo do Rosário Trindade

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link. 

Most read articles by the same author(s)