The London Institute for Mathematical Sciences is a new kind of research institute that gives scientists the support and freedom to do what they do best: make fundamental discoveries. It is private, inspirational and anti-bureaucratic, which is why we have enjoyed working with the Dimensions team so much: they share our values.
Because the London Institute is private, understanding the impact of our papers is especially important; we live or die by the quality and reach of our discoveries. At the London Institute, we think of our scientific publications in a similar way to how a school of artists might think of their prized paintings. Dimensions is transforming the way in which we understand how and by whom our papers are perceived – in a way that is clear, instantaneous and fun.
As soon as you measure something, you’re in a position to maximize it. Thanks to the integrated Dimensions Badges in combination with the Altmetric attention data within Dimensions, our scientists have woken up to the spread of their ideas over the popular press, blogs, and social media. The impact of discoveries is bounded by the number of people who know about them. Dimensions uniquely informs us of the magnitude and channels of our discovery proliferation. More unexpectedly, Dimensions has created a shift of culture within the Institute: we are more inclined to ensure that our scientific stories are clearly and compellingly written so that non-specialists, as well as specialists, are aware of them.
Our Institute and our scientists were largely unaware of the press that many of our papers were receiving. Dimensions provides the large majority of our insight here and has been a shot in the arm for many of our scientists who simply didn’t know about the attention generated by their work.
A lot has been written about the limitations of citations as a one-size-fits-all way of measuring publication value, and the ability to access the Altmetric Attention Score and donut seamlessly within the Dimensions platform provides an important antidote to this.At the same time, a real-time, simple system for tracking when and where our papers are cited is incredibly insightful. It helps us detect causal events connected with new citations and the relation between online traffic and journal citations. Each citation is an important testament to the tradition of scientists standing on the shoulders of giants to help them see farther.
One benefit of Dimensions that we didn’t see coming is that it’s helped the London Institute identify many papers that cite us in the address field that we didn’t even know about. The result is that Institute-wide, we have 35% more papers than we realized. And this is after considerable effort inquiring with our scientists and online.
To “know thyself” is sought by many, but often we see ourselves best through the insights of another. Dimensions has helped the London Institute better understand the research landscape and recognize the broader impacts of our published work. As a result, the Institute’s scientists are more motivated, inspired and effective.
View the press release here >>