What is it about?
This paper outlines two kinds of interactions that happen on Twitter surrounding old published journal articles. Typically, only the newest scholarship is said to be discussed in social media. Here we show that works from the 1960s and 1990s by Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, the father of liver transplantation, continue to be referenced and discussed in social media. These papers are brought up in two kinds of discussions: first, when scholars from his vast network show grief after his death and connect with their colleagues who were influenced by his works, and second, by science-minded Twitter users as evidence to refute racist claims about medicine. We argue that these are meaningful interactions on social media that show the long-term impact of this work, and that using altmetrics tools to find these interactions is a valuable component of understanding a scholar's legacy.
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Why is it important?
Typically, research on altmetrics is only done on recent scholarship, which has led to the idea that altmetrics are only useful for new scholarly works. Here we show that altmetrics can be a valuable tools for archivists and scholars who are interested in the legacy of an author's body of work or a particular publication.
Perspectives
This article built a bridge between silos in the library and altmetrics world. By incorporating both a scholarly communications and an archivist perspective, we show that these tools can have a wide range of uses for people who are interested in different facets of scholarship. It was a delight for me (the scholarly communications librarian) to work with an archivist and see where our interests overlap.
Dr Lauren B Collister
University of Pittsburgh
As an archivist, I was never quite sure how altmetrics applied to my daily work or to my collections. When Lauren brought this topic to my attention, I was interested at first but unsure of what I would have to contribute. The more we discussed the implications these altmetrics had for the collection, the development of Starzl's legacy, and how it was an important part of creating the context for the use of his archival papers in the future, it became fascinating to see how this relatively new manner of evaluating materials could be applied to our historic collections.
Ashley L. Taylor
University of Pittsburgh
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Altmetrics, Legacy Scholarship, and Scholarly Legacy, Pennsylvania Libraries Research & Practice, October 2017, University Library System, University of Pittsburgh,
DOI: 10.5195/palrap.2017.154.
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