Citation Monitoring Tool Adds Data from Open Syllabus Project

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 09/26/16

A company that helps institutions and publishers monitor the reach of their scholarly output has begun tracking data from the Open Syllabus Project (OSP).

Altmetric aims to capture the reach and impact of content beyond traditional citation-based measures by including references from public policy, coverage in the mainstream media, discussions on social media and blogs, and "mentions" in other sources such as Wikipedia, Mendeley and post-publication peer-review forums.

The OSP, a project hosted at Columbia University's American Assembly, crawls through university websites to collect course syllabi. The goal is to extract citations and other metadata from them in order to learn how fields are evolving that could influence teaching and publishing. Currently, the project has collected more than a million syllabi from 4,000 institutions, whose referenced texts can be explored on the project's website. OSP doesn't share the underlying documents themselves; it aggregates and shares statistics about sources mentioned in the syllabi.

The Altmetric addition to that work is intended for its own users, who can go to "details" pages on the Altmetric website and see all of the original shares and mentions for specific research that now also includes the data from OSP syllabi. Users can click on the name of an institution to be taken to the associated OSP record, which lists all books referenced by that institution in its course syllabi.

"One of our main aims in launching the Open Syllabus tool was to help authors, scholars and libraries get a better understanding of where books were having an influence in the classroom," said OSP Project Director Joe Karaganis, in a press release. "We're really pleased to see Altmetric integrating our data into their platform, adding another level of visibility to our efforts."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • central cloud platform connected to various AI icons—including a brain, robot, and network nodes

    Linux Foundation to Host Protocol for AI Agent Interoperability

    The Linux Foundation has announced it will host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol project, an open standard originally developed by Google to support secure communication and interoperability among AI agents.

  • laptop displaying a digital bookshelf of textbooks on its screen

    Collaboration Brings OpenStax Course Materials to Microsoft Learning Zone

    Open education resources provider OpenStax has partnered with Microsoft to integrate its digital library of 80 openly licensed titles into Microsoft Learning Zone, an on-device AI tool for generating interactive lessons and learning activities.

  • cybersecurity analyst in a modern operations center monitors multiple digital screens showing padlock icons, graphs, and a global map with security markers

    Louisiana State University Doubles Down on Larger Student-Run SOC

    In an effort to provide students with increased access to real-world cybersecurity experience, Louisiana State University has expanded its relationship with cybersecurity solutions provider TekStream to launch TigerSOC, a new student-run security operations center.

  • abstract pattern of cybersecurity, ai and cloud imagery

    OpenAI Report Identifies Malicious Use of AI in Cloud-Based Cyber Threats

    A report from OpenAI identifies the misuse of artificial intelligence in cybercrime, social engineering, and influence operations, particularly those targeting or operating through cloud infrastructure. In "Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI: June 2025," the company outlines how threat actors are weaponizing large language models for malicious ends — and how OpenAI is pushing back.