Why openly available abstracts are important — overview of the current state of affairs

Openness of the metadata of scientific articles is increasingly being discussed. In this blog post, Aaron Tay (SMU Libraries, Singapore Management University), Bianca Kramer (Utrecht University Library), and Ludo Waltman (CWTS, Leiden University) discuss the value of openly available abstracts.

Aaron Tay, Bianca Kramer and Ludo Waltman • June 30, 2020

Evaluative Inquiry I: Academic value is more than performance

Mainstream evaluation metrics tend to understand academic value as performance while missing other valuable elements of academic value trajectories. This first of four blogposts focuses on the concept of value of the Evaluative Inquiry’s approach to research evaluation.

Tjitske Holtrop, Laurens Hessels and Ad Prins • June 25, 2020

Monitoring the dissemination of COVID-19-related scientific publications in online media

Research around COVID-19 has experienced broad public interest, with new findings being distributed in various communication platforms. In this blog post we introduce a monitoring tool for exploring the social media reception of scientific publications on the pandemic.

Rodrigo Costas, Giovanni Colavizza, Jonathan Dudek and Zhichao Fang • June 23, 2020

You couldn't attend the Altmetrics conference? Fear not! We recorded everything you missed

Our generous friends at TIB have created a service to watch all the Altmetrics conference and workshop videos. We are so lucky!

Bastian Drees, Grischa Fraumann and Isabella Peters • June 09, 2020

How does a lockdown affect a visiting researcher? Some reflections during the COVID-19 lockdown period

In July 2019, I joined CWTS for a one-year research stay. The lockdown due to COVID-19 changed my situation as a visiting researcher quite a bit. While virtual ways of working could make up for some of the constraints experienced, I had to think: what might be the effects on academic networking?

Carey Ming-Li Chen • June 05, 2020

Exploring the COVID-19 discourse in “The Conversation”

The current pandemic has revealed a pressing demand for accessible and reliable science communication. Platforms such as “The Conversation” can help by enabling experts to communicate research to the public. Here, we explore the topics that became prevalent in this medium in the context of COVID-19.

Jonathan Dudek and Rodrigo Costas • June 02, 2020

Comparing bibliographic data sources: Q&A

Last week CWTS researchers Martijn Visser, Nees Jan van Eck, and Ludo Waltman published the paper 'Large-scale comparison of bibliographic data sources: Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions, Crossref, and Microsoft Academic'. In this post, the authors answer ten questions about their work.

Martijn Visser, Nees Jan van Eck and Ludo Waltman • May 29, 2020

Elsevier and the Dutch Open Science goals

The VSNU, NFU, NWO and Elsevier have announced a national deal that bundles Open Access and data services. Is the deal consistent with Dutch Open Science goals, and will undesirable platform effects be avoided?

Sarah de Rijcke • May 20, 2020 • 1 comment

Going back to normal?

With Covid-19 forcing university staff to work from home, there is ample opportunity for rethinking all the commuting we were doing in ‘normal' times. However, staying all at home is not so enjoyable, either. Could there be an alternative?

Ed Noyons • May 14, 2020

From ‘fund and forget’ to formative and participatory research evaluation