Baltimore, MD - May 13, 2016 - The National Information Standards
Organization (NISO) seeks comments on three draft documents related to
Altmetrics: NISO RP-25-201x-2A, Alternative Outputs in Scholarly
Communications: Data Metrics; NISO RP-25-201x-2B, Persistent Identifiers
in Scholarly Communications; and NISO RP-25-201x-2C, Alternative
Outputs in Scholarly Communications.
These documents are the latest outputs from NISO's Altmetrics
Initiative, a project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The
project aims to address limitations and gaps that may hinder the
adoption of altmetrics, an expansion of tools available for measuring
scholarly impact of research in the knowledge environment. Other working
groups participating in the project have released drafts on Altmetrics
Definitions and Use Cases and a Code of Conduct for Provider Data
Quality.
NISO RP-25-201x-2A, Alternative Outputs in Scholarly Communications:
Data Metrics emphasizes the necessity for data to be citable and its
use to be measurable. "The Research Data Metrics recommendations are
intended to be a very practical set of guidelines that can be
implemented by repositories and data publishers alike in the immediate
future," says Mike Taylor of Elsevier, co-chair of the Working Group
that created the drafts. "The last two years have shown a tremendous
growth in the interest in data publishing and posting," continues
Taylor, "and we can all benefit from standards about how we define and
count a 'download.' I'd like to thank the folk at FORCE11 and elsewhere
for their continuing drive to implement data citation."
The second two draft documents, NISO RP-25-201x-2B, Persistent
Identifiers in Scholarly Communications and NISO RP-25-201x-2C,
Alternative Outputs in Scholarly Communications, are largely comprised
of tables that offer overviews of important aspects of scientific
communication today. "I'm hopeful that these two outputs will seed and
support conversations around these important topics," states Kristi
Holmes, of Galter Health Sciences Library at Northwestern University and
co-chair of the Working Group. "Wider use of persistent identifiers and
recognition of non-article academic outputs are important steps that
can further help transform the modern scholarly landscape and facilitate
broad data interoperability and exchange."
The Persistent Identifiers document recognizes that DOIs are only one
type of identifier among the many available to researchers today, and
describes the importance of related efforts in a variety of scholarly
domains to identify research outputs of various types. The authors
encourage those community members working to support open science and
interoperability to use persistent identifiers to measure, evaluate, and
report on the effectiveness of research infrastructure and
communication whenever possible.
NISO RP-25-201x-2C, Alternative Outputs in Scholarly Communication
offers a current list of nontraditional research outputs, displaying the
rich array of scholarly products that are created during the research
process. The included table provides brief descriptions of the various
kinds of materials being produced, from new cell lines to W3C standards;
notes example s of known current efforts and by whom these are being
undertaken; and offers relevant links.
"These three documents represent a tremendous amount of effort on the
part of the Working Group, and we thank them for these valuable
contributions," remarks Nettie Lagace, NISO Associate Director for
Programs. "Commentary from the wide spectrum of stakeholders in the area
of altmetrics will make the documents even stronger, and NISO and the
Working Group are hopeful for rich input before the material is
published in its final form early this summer."
The draft Recommended Practices are open for public comment through June
11, 2016. To download the drafts or submit online comments, visit the
NISO Altmetrics Initiative web page at
http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/altmetrics_initiative/.
About NISO
NISO, based in Baltimore, Maryland, fosters the development and
maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent
management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be
trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO
engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other
organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through
the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO
works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire
lifecycle of information standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association
accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). For
more information, visit the
NISO website.
