Slides for a talk on "Open Practices for the Connected Researcher" given by Brian Kelly, UKOLN at the University of Exeter on 23 October 2012, as part of a series of Open Access Week events held at the university. See http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/exeter-open-access-week-2012/

1. Open Practices for the
Connected Researcher
Open Practices for the
Connected Researcher
Presentation by Brian Kelly, UKOLN on 25 October 2012
Presentation by Brian Kelly, UKOLN on 23 October 2012 for
for an Open Access Week event at the University of Exeter
an Open Access Week event at the University of Exeter
1

2. Twitter: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/exeter-open-access-week-2012/
#OAweek
Open Practices for the
Connected Researcher
Brian Kelly Acceptable Use Policy
UKOLN Recording this talk, taking photos,
having discussions using Twitter,
University of Bath etc. is encouraged - but try to keep
Bath, UK distractions to others minimised.
Blog:
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @briankelly / @ukwebfocus
UKOLN is supported by:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
licence (but note caveat)

3. Idea from Cameron Neylon
You are free to:
copy, share, adapt, or re-mix;
photograph, film, or broadcast;
blog, live-blog, or post video of
this presentation provided that:
You attribute the work to its author and respect the rights
and licences associated with its components.
Slide Concept by Cameron Neylon, who has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights. This slide only CCZero.
Social Media Icons adapted with permission from originals by Christopher Ross. Original images are available under GPL at:
3 http://www.thisismyurl.com/free-downloads/15-free-speech-bubble-icons-for-popular-websites

4. Introduction About Me
Brian Kelly:
• UK Web Focus: national advisory post to UK HEIs
• Long-standing Web evangelist
• Based at UKOLN at the University of Bath
• Prolific blogger (1,125+ posts since Nov 2006)
• User of various devices to support professional
(and social) activities
• Prolific speaker (~390 talks from 1996-2012)
• Member of UKOLN‟s Innovation Support Centre
ISC at UKOLN:
• Supporting innovation across higher & further
education
4
• Funded by JISC

5. Introduction About This Talk
Open access:
• Benefits for researchers understood
• Arguments will continue
This seminar goes beyond open access:
• Open practices: sharing ideas on blogs
• Open engagement: the role of Twitter
• Dissemination: getting your research read
• Gathering the evidence: social media metrics
• Making it work: identifying best practices
This talk provides 12 tips for the connected researcher
Based on evidence gained from personal experiences
5

6. About You
Are you a Roundhead or a Cavalier?
“In the century, Britain was devastated by a civil war that
divided the nation into two tribes – the Roundheads and
the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers represent a Britain of
panache, pleasure and individuality. They are
confronted by the Roundheads, who stand for modesty,
discipline, equality and state intervention.”
Who do you admire most?
• Mo Farrah for winning the
5,000 and 10,000m?
• Usain Bolt for partying
with Swedish handball
team after winning
100m, & before 200m &
6

7. Introduction Are You A Marxist?
“Hitherto, philosophers have sought to
understand the world; the point, however, is to change it”
Do you seek to change the world through your research
or simply understand the world:
• Will you want to market your research?
• Will you want others to market your research?
• Will you have a detached view of your research?
7

8. My Papers
My papers in the University of Bath Opus repository
8

9. Open Access enhances access
Largets downloads
9

10. Least Downloaded Papers
Will papers in
a repository
be seldom
seen?
What can be
learn from
approaches
taken for the
popular and
unpopular
10 papers?

11. Learning from Mistakes
“Using context to support effective application of web
content accessibility guidelines”
• Submitted in July 2005
• Reviewers comments received in April 2006
• Published in JWE in December 2006
• PDF uploaded to repository in May 2012
• Forgotten paper
when bulk uploads Reflections on implications
made given in “If a Tree Falls in a
Forest” post
11

12. Learning From Success
“Library 2.0: balancing the risks and benefits to maximise the
dividends”
• Sixth most downloaded
paper in repository 
• But only recent
download statistics
available 
2012
12

15. Beyond the Edge Cases
Little-downloaded paper:
• Uploaded to repository 6 years after paper written
• I was not lead author
• Only PDF version uploaded
• Never blogged about; never tweeted
Most popular paper:
• Available in IR on launch of journal issue
• I was lead author
• MS Word, PDF & HTML versions uploaded
• Blog post published on day of launch
• Link to paper subsequently tweeted & retweeted
• About Web 2.0, so likely to be read by bloggers
But what about the majority of papers?
15

17. Tip No. 1: Be Pro-active
Tip No. 1:
Be pro-active
17

18. W4A 2012 Paper
Case study:
• Paper on “A challenge to web accessibility metrics
and guidelines: putting people and processes first”
given at W4A 2012 conference in Lyon in Apr 2012
Four co-authors agreed:
• To collaborate in raising awareness of paper and
presentation of the paper
How:
• Writing blog posts on or just before conference
• To participate in Twitter (e.g. responding to
comments while speaker is presenting paper)
Benefits:
• Reaching out to a wider audience based on our 4
18
professional networks

19. Preparation
We:
• Uploaded paper to repository so URL was known
• Provided a link to the paper in speaker‟s slides
• Uploaded holding slide to Slideshare so URL was
known (slides were finalised shortly before talk)
We could then:
• Prepare blog posts in advance
• Create short URLs in advance
Examples of approaches to follow
19

20. Tip No. 2: Identify Key
Channels
Tip No. 2:
Identify the key channels
20

21. Opus Repository
Paper uploaded to Opus repository
21
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/29190/

22. http://www.slideshare.net/sloandr/w4a12-coopersloankellylewthwaite
22 Metadata provided to give context to slides

23. Final slide provides (active) links to related work
23

24. Tip No. 3: Monitor What
Works
Tip No. 3:
Monitor what works (for you)
24

25. Capture Statistics
On 18 Apr 12:
• 1,391 views
on Slideshare
• Other slides
had 3 and
311 views
By 11 Sep 12:
• 6,976 views on
Slideshare
“Lies, damned
lies & statistics”
– but 3rd most
downloaded
2012 paper in
2012
25

26. Topsy and Event Hashtag
Buzz around event
hashtag captured
by Topsy
26

27. Topsy & Discussion About Slides
Topsy recorded
discussions about slides
27

28. Topsy & Discussion About Paper
Topsy recorded
discussions about paper
Note tweets
about event
(25) and
slides (20)
more popular
than paper (7)
28

29. Repository Statistics
Opus repository stats:
• Views began in March
(before conference).
Publish on embargo date
didn‟t work!
• Largest downloads took
place on 7 March, day
blog post published
• Post about
collaborative tools for
29 writing paper, not

30. Other Repositories In some disciplines
other repositories
may be popular
“palaeontologists for some reason very
much like Academia.edu. Perhaps your
research communities centre around IRs -
this will vary from discipline to discipline”
30 Ross Mounce, Palaeontologist @ Bath

31. Tip No. 4: Don’t Forget the
Links!
Tip No. 4:
Don’t forget the links
31

32. LinkedIn
Links to paper added to
• LinkedIn
• Academia.edu
• My pages on UKOLN Web site and blog
• …
32

33. Academia.edu
Academia.edu
Academia.edu users may
find my papers here and
Note: LinkedIn users in LinkedIn.
• Links to papers in IR (not uploaded) Why would I make it difficult
33 • Importance of tags for them?

34. The IR
Your papers should
be hosted on your
institutional repository
34

35. The Institutional Web Site
You may also wish to
provide links on your
institutional Web site
Note direct links to paper
in various formats
35

36. The Institutional CRIS
Your papers may
also be listed on the
institutional CRIS
36

37. The Blog
If you have a blog you
can provide links to
your papers (again to
all formats)
37

38. Commentable Pages on Blog
Recent development:
Commentable pages for
papers with links to key
resources (IR & publisher‟s
copy, metrics, citations, …)
38

39. Tip No. 5: Don’t Forget the
Google Juice!
Tip No. 5:
Don‟t forget the Google juice!
39

40. Importance of Google
Context:
• Between 50-80% of traffic to IRs are from Google
(may be higher if direct links to PDFs not recorded
by Google Analytics)
What provides „Google juice‟:
• On-page SEO techniques
(structure, writing style, …)
• Links to pages, especially
from highly-ranking sites
40

41. Importance of Google
Context:
• Between 50-80% of traffic to IRs are from Google
(may be higher if direct links to PDFs not recorded
by Google Analytics)
What provides „Google juice‟:
• On-page SEO techniques
(structure, writing style, …)
• Links to pages, especially
from highly-ranking sites
What‟s different about IRs?
• Same page structure
• Therefore importance of links
to repository
41

42. Importance of Google
Context:
• Between 50-80% of traffic to IRs are from Google
(may be higher if direct links to PDFs not recorded
by Google Analytics)
What provides „Google juice‟:
• On-page SEO techniques
(structure, writing style, …)
• Links to pages, especially
from highly-ranking sites
What‟s different about IRs?
• Same page structure
• Therefore importance of links
to repository
42

43. What Delivers Google Juice?
Survey of SEO ranking of 24
Russell Group IRs carried out in
August 2012.
Findings:
• Google, YouTube, Blogspot, Wi
kipedia and Microsoft are
highest ranking domains with
links to IRs
• Blogspot.com & WordPress.com
Blogspot.com
Wordpress.com have significantly larger number
of links to IRs
• Links from institutional domain
(e.g. locally-hosted blogs)
43
provide little Google juice!

44. UK Web
Focus
blog has
links to
papers
44

45. UK Web
Focus
blog has a
rotating
Featured
45 Paper link

46. UK Web
Focus blog
has a
rotating
Featured
Paper with
links to
funders &
organisation
on all pages
> 5,000?
46

47. But Isn’t Google Clever?
Google will address cheats aimed at artificially
boosting search results (“black hat SEO”)
But:
• This approach is “white hat SEO”
• SEO analysis of Bath IR shows top 5
highly ranked page are to my papers
2 Accessibility 2.0: next steps for web
accessibility, 2009. 5 citations
3 Can LinkedIn and Academia.edu Enhance
Access to Open Repositories?, 2012
5 Open Metrics for Open Repositories, 2012
Evidence:
• Largest number of downloads in IR
• Largest number of links from highly-ranked trusted domains
47
Success in dissemination. Need to correlate with nos. of citations

48. Google Scholar Citations
Most cited papers
according to Google
Scholar Citations
Downloads (IR)
Nos. Current Graph
275
169
244
48

49. Tip No. 6: Encourage
Feedback
Tip No. 6:
Encourage feedback and discussion
49

50. Comments On Your Blog A blog post about a
paper provides
opportunity for
feedback & discussion
Feedback on an
embarrassing typo!
Legitimate question
about research
assumptions
50

51. Blog Comments
Increasing tendency
for discussion and
comments to be
distributed (e.g. on
other people‟s blogs
or on Twitter)
Some topics do
attract large numbers
of comments
(evidence-based
surveys in my case).
51

52. Distributed Discussions
Comments may take
place on other blogs.
You should allow
trackbacks so you see
links to your posts
You can see links from
blogs which reference
yours.
You can see links from
other services which
reference yours.
You can see the chain
if you refer to previous
posts in your blog.
52

53. Referring Blog Post
Citation, but no
additional comment
53

54. Scoop.it
Scoop.it
54

55. Scoop.it Seeing no. of links
from Scoop.it
growing
Implications:
• Others highlighting
your ideas
• Scoop.it giving
your Google juice
• Helping you to
grow your network
This is of interest
to me. I must
follow the Dual
Impact Scoop.it
account
55

56. Tip No. 7: Develop Your
Network
Tip No. 7:
Develop your network
56

57. “It’s About Nodes and Connections”
Cameron Neylon keynote at OR 2012:
“Networks qualitatively change our capacity”
• With only 20% of a community connected
only limited interaction can take place
• This increases drastically as numbers of
connected nodes grows
Examples:
• Phone networks (no use with only 1 user!)
• Tweeting at this seminar
• Galaxy Zoo
“Filters block. Filters cause
friction”
Need for client-side, not
supply-side filters.
57

58. Tweetchats:
Tweetchat • Discussions on Twitter
• Specific topic covered
at specified time
• Use hashtags e.g.
#PhDchat, #ECRchat
Summary at
Survey findings:
“give a community &
shared space to
explore ideas”
“regular opportunity to
network with a wide
range of people I
wouldn’t otherwise
meet”
“have very interesting
and thought-provoking
discussions/debate”
58

59. Tip No. 8: Understand Your
Network
Tip No. 8:
Understand your network
59

60. Social Bros
SocialBro: people in
my network typically
follow 100-500 Twitter
60
users

61. Social Bros
SocialBro: people in my
network typically tweet
61 2-5 times every day

62. Traffic To My Blog
People arrive at the UK Web Focus blog via:
• Google
• Twitter Web site (nb client visits not included)
• Facebook!
62

63. Tip No. 9: Know Your Limits
Tip No. 9:
Know when to say “No!”
63

64. It May Not Be For You
Your working style; your discipline
• “The Social Web & the Belbin Model”
post suggested “Plants” & “Resource
investigators” may find Social Web fits
their working style
• You may have concerns about privacy
• You may work in different area of
research with different practices; …
Your time:
• “Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Academia.edu, scoop.it, b
it.ly, YouTube… - I haven’t got the time!”
• Need to prioritise, based on awareness of
possibilities, relevance, …
• But remember there can be light-weight
approaches you can use
64

65. Tip No. 10: Seek
Improvement
Tip No. 10:
Seek gradual improvement
65

66. Use of Slideshare
Improvements for next time.
66

67. Use of Slideshare
Improvements for next time.
67

68. Tip No. 11: Be Ethical
Tip No. 11:
Be ethical
68

69. Fake Reviews
Don‟t be tempted to create a
“sock puppet”: an online
identity used for purposes of
deception.
Note technological
developments are likely to
spot fraud / inappropriate
patterns of use.
69

70. Personal Statement
First public draft of a personal approach to use of social
media to support my research based on my working
practices:
• I will promote my research in order to maximise
awareness and take-up of ideas
• I will use social media to support this objective
• I will regard outputs which do not have a
sufficiently large audience as a failing
• I will not use fake accounts to promote my work
• I will be aware of potential concerns regarding
spamming
• I will gather evidence of the effectiveness of my
use of social media
70

71. Tip No. 12: Participate
Tip No. 12:
Participate!
71

72. Participate
Participate
72

73. Health Warning!
Suggestions given can help to enhance the
visibility of one’s research.
Highly visible and popular research is not
necessarily an indication of quality!
73

74. Conclusions
1 Be pro-active
2 Identify the key channels
3 Monitor what works for you
4 Don‟t forget the links
5 Don‟t forget the Google juice
6 Encourage feedback and discussion
7 Develop your network
8 Understand your network
9 Know your limits
10 Seek improvements
11 Be ethical
12 Participate
74

75. Questions
Any questions or comments?
75