Baltimore, MD - May 13, 2016 - The National Information Standards
Organization (NISO) seeks comments on three draft documents related to
Altmetrics: NISO RP-25-201x-2A, Alternative Outputs in Scholarly
Communications: Data Metrics; NISO RP-25-201x-2B, Persistent Identifiers in
Scholarly Communications; and NISO RP-25-201x-2C, Alternative Outputs in
Scholarly Communications.

These documents are the latest outputs from NISO's Altmetrics Initiative, a
project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The project aims to
address limitations and gaps that may hinder the adoption of altmetrics, an
expansion of tools available for measuring scholarly impact of research in
the knowledge environment. Other working groups participating in the
project have released drafts on Altmetrics Definitions and Use Cases and a
Code of Conduct for Provider Data Quality.

NISO RP-25-201x-2A, Alternative Outputs in Scholarly Communications: Data
Metrics emphasizes the necessity for data to be citable and its use to be
measurable. "The Research Data Metrics recommendations are intended to be a
very practical set of guidelines that can be implemented by repositories
and data publishers alike in the immediate future," says Mike Taylor of
Elsevier, co-chair of the Working Group that created the drafts. "The last
two years have shown a tremendous growth in the interest in data publishing
and posting," continues Taylor, "and we can all benefit from standards
about how we define and count a 'download.' I'd like to thank the folk at
FORCE11 and elsewhere for their continuing drive to implement data
citation."

The second two draft documents, NISO RP-25-201x-2B, Persistent Identifiers
in Scholarly Communications and NISO RP-25-201x-2C, Alternative Outputs in
Scholarly Communications, are largely comprised of tables that offer
overviews of important aspects of scientific communication today. "I'm
hopeful that these two outputs will seed and support conversations around
these important topics," states Kristi Holmes, of Galter Health Sciences
Library at Northwestern University and co-chair of the Working Group.
"Wider use of persistent identifiers and recognition of non-article
academic outputs are important steps that can further help transform the
modern scholarly landscape and facilitate broad data interoperability and
exchange."

The Persistent Identifiers document recognizes that DOIs are only one type
of identifier among the many available to researchers today, and describes
the importance of related efforts in a variety of scholarly domains to
identify research outputs of various types. The authors encourage those
community members working to support open science and interoperability to
use persistent identifiers to measure, evaluate, and report on the
effectiveness of research infrastructure and communication whenever
possible.

NISO RP-25-201x-2C, Alternative Outputs in Scholarly Communication offers a
current list of nontraditional research outputs, displaying the rich array
of scholarly products that are created during the research process. The
included table provides brief descriptions of the various kinds of
materials being produced, from new cell lines to W3C standards; notes
example s of known current efforts and by whom these are being undertaken;
and offers relevant links.

"These three documents represent a tremendous amount of effort on the part
of the Working Group, and we thank them for these valuable contributions,"
remarks Nettie Lagace, NISO Associate Director for Programs. "Commentary
from the wide spectrum of stakeholders in the area of altmetrics will make
the documents even stronger, and NISO and the Working Group are hopeful for
rich input before the material is published in its final form early this
summer."

The draft Recommended Practices are open for public comment through June
11, 2016. To download the drafts or submit online comments, visit the NISO
Altmetrics Initiative web page at
http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/altmetrics_initiative/.

*About NISO*
NISO, based in Baltimore, Maryland, fosters the development and maintenance
of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and
effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in
research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries,
publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support
learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization,
management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting
communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of information
standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information, visit the NISO
website <http://www.niso.org/home/>.

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