The Expanding Role of Academic Librarians in Supporting Researcher Profile Management Tools

Abstract

In recent years, reliance on research metrics as a measure of the quality and impact of research in post-secondary institutions has highlighted the need for accuracy. Post-secondary faculty and students are expected to develop and use researcher profile management tools, otherwise known as persistent IDs (PIDs), to promote and retain individual and university-wide bibliometrics. Librarian support of these tools could be strengthened by understanding how and when users utilize these tools, and their preferences. This poster will discuss two parts of a research project. The first part of the study is an assessment of ongoing discovery sessions on using researcher profiles and PIDs(such as ORCID, Publons, ResearchGate, Google Scholar Citations and Scopus Author Profile). We will discuss the pre-post survey results of these sessions and what our role as librarian is in this process. The second part of the research project explores the adoption of researcher profile management tools in all faculties at the University of Manitoba. After data analysis, we will analyze patterns in discipline and career advancement (rank) among research profiles and PIDs. Our initial results will inform library outreach efforts to increase usage and understanding about the importance of these tools in research.