Digital Science, a leader in scholarly technology, is pleased to announce a collaboration with the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) that will give ISSI members enhanced access to Dimensions and Altmetric data for scientometric research.
ISSI is an international association of scholars and professionals active in the interdisciplinary study science of science, science communication, and science policy. The ISSI community advances the boundaries of quantitative science studies, from theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives.
Starting on October 1 2019, ISSI members will formally be invited to apply for no-cost access to Altmetric and Dimensions web tools and APIs. A committee of ISSI members will provide expert assessment of researchers’ applications and guidance on using Altmetric and Dimensions in their research.
This partnership builds upon Altmetric and Dimensions’ existing no-cost data sharing programs, which are currently open to all researchers conducting non-commercial scientometric research, while providing ISSI members with additional expert advice on early-stage research.
There is an increasing demand for high quality assessments of the science and innovation ecosystem. Scientometric expertise is crucial for ensuring that these assessments are done responsibly and can be relied on as a trusted source of information for policymakers and the public alike. The necessary data for these analyses, however, is often expensive and limited in scope. In order to provide timely and comprehensive analyses, it clear that scientometricians should have direct access to:
- a diverse set of contextual research information that is fully linked together: making it possible to trace a path between grants, clinical trials, publications, patents and policy documents; and,
- research-related data and information with as few constraints as possible, enabling efficient large-scale analysis.
The collaboration marks a significant step forward in how Dimensions and Altmetric data are made available and used by the community to create new scientometric indicators. The partnership will also open up fresh research opportunities for exploration of the more than 100 million publications and 1 billion citations indexed in Dimensions (interlinked with millions of grants and patents, and hundreds of thousands of clinical trial records and policy documents), and 108 million mentions of 13 million scholarly works captured by Altmetric across seventeen distinct online platforms.
Cassidy Sugimoto, President ISSI: “Equity, transparency, and rigor should be the cornerstones of contemporary research. This partnership provides all of our members with access to high-quality data, enhances replicability and reproducibility within the field, and provides an extremely rich dataset for analyses. I’m delighted to join in this partnership which will bring strong benefits to members of our Society and to the field at large.”
Christian Herzog, CEO Dimensions, said: “In the past, access to data has limited the ability of the research community to develop new research approaches and apply their findings effectively in the field. We aim to change this through our commitment to providing no-cost access to Dimensions and Altmetric data for noncommercial scientometric research, enabling the scientometrics community to focus on doing the research rather than struggling to get access to the information they need.”
