Thursday 18 October 2012

So... Bibliometrics

As I have said several times I am still behind in the DH23 module but well I am still keeping at it. This week I am doing the Bibliometrics part of the module.

Quite interesting I have to say. As much as I do a lot of work on cyberspace I am still in awe at how much more you can do. I guess my defense is that I research how other people use the internet and not how I do it. Maybe I should change agendas and look into what I am missing out in cyberspace.

I have managed to update my profile on google scholar but as a new postdoc it just seems so scary as I do not have citations etc yet and I have had a peek at other people's citations which are very very long. Anyway I am still at an early stage of my career and hopefully will watch that list grow.

When it comes to Researcher ID, I think I am a bit safe there. This is where having a unique name comes in handy - as there are a few people that share my name. Having said that I have not created a profile on Researcher ID  as I seem to be creating profiles everywhere and anywhere which leads back to the question of professionalism etiquette in cyberspace. I do not believe I will use this facility and so I will skip creating a profile that I will probably never use although it is a brilliant idea, especially for those that are publishing 3+ papers a year - which I am not.

It was quite easy to create the profile on google scholar and I also like the idea that its linked to most of my accounts and so I don't have to remember many passwords ( Although LastPass is brilliant for doing that sometimes I have some hiccups but I have put it down to the learning curve on my part).
I am still not sure how this helps raise my profile online. For some reasons I didn't see anyone who had similar research interests as mine even though I used really common words.

I also feel that profiles online are seen by a few individuals - mostly my friends etc. As there are so many places to create a profile, I believe a recruiter, PI or whatever when you apply for jobs would go to 2 or 3 specific sites (which may/may not be the ones I have used) and thus they may/may not see my research profile online. My evaluation of this exercise is that one should create an online profile for personal satisfaction and not the intention of building a network profile. I still think the best way of networking or forming collaborations is to attend conferences and call individuals and ask to meet them  etc. Face to face contact is still the best for me. Who knows I might change my mind by the time we get to Thing 23.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

My Online Identity

I have to say I am so behind in this course but as I had a chance to reflect this week I decided that even though it mey mean a few weeks of trailing behind its still worth persuing, and so there I was at 10:00am this morning googling myself. I have to say I always thought it a bit vain to google oneself but today I had an excuse - I was doing homework for my course.

So here goes nothing - having a foreign name does not do one any good in the blogosphere or the digital world, but I have decided to stick to using my real name. Can't handle multiple personas:

  1. Google
    • the first site that came up unfortunately was an unused linkedIn page. I had the idea to create my online identity last year and so I set up a few accounts. Few months later with all the work pile up I have forgotten the passowords etc and basically havent used the account for a while. I guess the logical thing would be to find a way to retrieve and revive this account otherwise as mentioned it does look unprofessional.
    • second site was facebook
    • third was a site with information on my current research by the UKCRN (Sharing Bad News Study).
    • fourth is 192.com - really bad going for me I think
    • fifth is the university website profile
    • sixth is twitter
    • and then the rest are not worth mentioning. With the images my name is quite common in my home country and so really I do not feel this can be improved in anyway.
  2. Personas
    • I still do not have a clear concept of what this does or how it does it, but my profile looks something like this :
  3. Social mention
    • According to this tool, the likelihood that my name (brand) is being discussed in social media is 1%, but then again I dont know how accurate this tools are considering all the cultural differences of namenames, and other situational contexts.

I guess the big question as I see everyone else is asking - how do I create and maintain and online profile. There are so many tools and programs out there in cyberspace and everytime something comes I have been guilty of jumping on the band wagon in an attempt to stay visible and I confess that this does not work.

After reading the article about online personas in the times highe, I think a personal webpage is the way to go. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=413005
 Having one personal website with all papers etc and careful maintanance is good as well as manageable over a long period of time. One can post pictures, papers, articles and anything they read in one place and link it to the ac.uk work page but have the ability to take it with you when you move on to the next job. There are also no limitations on the content that you can post and chances of forgetting the password are very slim, unlike having a dozen pages (facebook, twitter, linkedIn, academia etc).
Having said that I dont know whether I am ready to give up all the other accounts I have created, even though I rarely ever use them - well once or twice a month really, but I may soon come round to using them one day - when I do not have a mountain of data to analyse, grants to apply for, funding to seek etc and all the rest that comes with being a contract post doc researchers.