REALM: An Altmetrics-based Framework to Map Science Impacts on Society. A Case Study on Zika Research

Abstract

Nowadays, a lot of universities and research institutes are concerned with measuring their scientists’ productivity and the public awareness of its scientific discoveries, that is, how citizens interpret the efficiency of scientists and their efforts to find solutions. This scenario demands mechanisms to identify the experts’ reputation in specific domains or topics of interest, such as the Zika epidemic. In this paper we describe an altmetrics-based framework which allows the identification of specialists and important research in specific research scenarios. Besides, we did an implementation of the framework and applied it in the Zika scenario where the most important names and disease-related studies were identified and their public awareness was analysed via altmetrics.CCS Concepts• Networks $\rightarrow$ Online social networks; • Human-centered computing $\rightarrow$ Social network analysis; Reputation systems.