The Altmetric Podcast
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Welcome to the Altmetric Podcast, where we bring you the stories behind the science that is being discussed the most online.
Thousands of conversations about scientific research happen online every day and at Altmetric we track and collate these conversations. In our podcast series, we interview the researchers behind the research that is being discussed the most, so you can find out why.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
6 days ago
Ten simple rules for getting started on Twitter as a Scientist
How much can you achieve in 280 characters? If you get them right, quite a lot. According to the researchers behind a paper in PLoS Computational Biology, Twitter could transform your career as a scientist.
In this Podcast, Dr. Felienne Hermans (@Felienne), Associate Professor at Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, shares the details of her work and advises how other Scientists can earn an audience by adding value.
Read the study: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007513
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/75744448?src=bookmarklet
May 27, 2020
Couch potato or healthy eater?
How do kids decide what to eat? According to a recent study, their choice could be influenced by what they’ve been watching on television.
In this podcast, Dr. Frans Folkvord discuss the work he and his team conducted to show that children who watch TV cooking programs featuring healthy food are more likely to make healthier food choices than those who watch programs featuring unhealthy food.
Read the study: https://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(19)31055-3/fulltext
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/73439862?src=bookmarklet
Apr 23, 2020
Extinction due to climate change
Dr. John J. Wiens, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from The University of Arizona talks about his research, and the need to act now to mitigate climate change in order to protect biodiversity.
Read the study: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/8/4211
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/75751186?src=bookmarklet
Mar 31, 2020
Brain age and smoking
Dr. Kaida Ning from the University of Southern California tells us about her latest study that used MRI scans to analyze the effect of smoking and alcohol consumption on cognitive functions.
Read the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56089-4
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/74735158?src=bookmarklet
Mar 25, 2020
Special Episode - The altmetrics insights of open access publications
Digital Science's Mike Taylor is joined by Dr. Kim Holmberg, to discuss the effects that publishing open access has on journal articles, why there are increased rates of online mentions for OA publications and how these altmetrics insights might be used.
Feb 27, 2020
Five ways to improve doctor patient connection
Dr. Donna Zulman, a primary care physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford in the US, chats to us about her research looking at methods to improve how doctors engage with their patients in a meaningful way.
Read the study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2758456
Explore the attention:
https://www.altmetric.com/details/73716746?src=bookmarklet
Jan 30, 2020
Eat for 10 hours a day, fast for 14
We speak to Professor Satchin Panda from the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences, about his study that explained why your alarm clock may have more to do with losing weight than you think.
Ten-Hour Time-Restricted Eating Reduces Weight, Blood Pressure, and Atherogenic Lipids in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome
Read the study:
https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(19)30611-4
Explore the attention:
https://www.altmetric.com/details/72222197?src=bookmarklet
Jan 17, 2020
Special Episode - Academic books and Open access
Leila Moore of Taylor and Francis, and Charles Watkinson of Michigan University Press are two publishers working to develop and promote open monographs. In this special podcast, they're in conversation with Michael Taylor of Digital Science, where they talk about the value that publishers bring to the long-form academic book, the challenges of adapting business and technical models to open books, and their plans and hopes for the future.
Dec 17, 2019
Discover the Altmetric Top 100 of 2019
We look at the biggest headline-grabbing stories of 2019, from climate change to politics, AI to healthy living. Hear from Dr. Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the US and Dr. Tessa Davis from the Royal London Hospital in the UK.
Explore the 2019 Altmetric Top 100: https://www.altmetric.com/top100/2019/
Dec 3, 2019
Kids These Days
Dr. John Protzko, from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, tells us about his study that investigates why older generations tend to think younger people are declining and if this is specific to certain traits.
Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking
Read the study: http://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav5916
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details.php?citation_id=68776777&src=bookmarklet
Nov 1, 2019
How many tweets does it take to cross the line into unethical promotion?
Phaedra Cress, Executive Editor of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ) and the ASJ Open Forum, talks to us about her new white paper, produced in collaboration with Altmetric, that considers the distinction between legitimate self-promotion and predatory practices for journals.
Read the white paper: https://altmetric.figshare.com/articles/Altmetrics_An_Analysis_of_Social_Media_Promotion_Gaming_and_Ethics_in_Academic_Publishing/9747458
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/66430048?src=bookmarklet
Oct 2, 2019
Mapping the Milky Way
Dr. Dorota Skowron from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw in Poland joins us for a discussion on how she, along with her team, used stars called cepheids to map the Milky Way like a giant join-the-dots picture.
Read the study: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6452/478
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/44270684?src=bookmarklet
Aug 30, 2019
Understanding climate change
Dr. Jean-Francois Bastin from ETH Zürich joins us to discuss his two recently published papers that look at how the temperatures are predicted to change by 2050 in major cities and how planting trees could help tackle the problem of climate change.
The global tree restoration potential
Read the study: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/76
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/63138461?src=bookmarklet
Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues
Read the study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217592
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/63384682?src=bookmarklet
Jul 25, 2019
We’re suckers for ‘puppy dog eyes’
Dr. Juliane Kaminski discusses the findings and online attention surrounding her study that looks into the evolution of the unique eyebrow movement found in dogs known as "puppy dog eyes" and idea that humans may have played a part in its development.
Read the study: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/29/14677
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/62316573?src=bookmarklet
Jun 27, 2019
Settling the thermostat war
We speak to Dr. Agne Kajackaite, from the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, about the findings and online discussion around her study that looks to settle the disagreement we have all experienced about office thermostat settings for good by using cognitive tests to determine whether there is any change in the performance of men and women at different temperatures.
Read the study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0216362
Explore the attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/60846528?src=bookmarklet
Jun 20, 2019
Special episode - Academic research and the creative arts: a discussion with Dr. Helen Marshall
Mike Taylor, Head of Metrics at Digital Science and Lily Troia, Scholarly Communication Librarian and Solutions Account Manager at Digital Science, sit down with Dr Helen Marshall, Author and Lecturer at the University of Queensland, to discuss the nature of academic research and how it relates to the creative arts, STEM-centred publishing formats and much more.
Find out more about Dr. Helen Marshall and her work here http://helen-marshall.com
May 31, 2019
It’s time to retire statistical significance
In this episode of The Altmetric Podcast, we talk to Dr. Blake McShane, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management in the United States, about his paper that suggests it may be time to retire the use of statistical significance as a method of assessing scientific findings. Read the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9 Explore the details page: https://www.altmetric.com/details.php?citation_id=57358237&src=bookmarklet
Apr 24, 2019
There's no link between MMR and autism
We speak to Dr. Anders Hviid, Senior Investigator in the Department of Epidemiology Research at Statens Serum Institute in Denmark, about his study, that shows there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, that sparked a wave on online discussion.
Read the study: https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2727726/measles-mumps-rubella-vaccination-autism-nationwide-cohort-study
Explore the details page: https://www.altmetric.com/details/56459321?src=bookmarklet
Apr 3, 2019
Could the planetary diet protect our future?
In this episode, we speak to Dr. Brent Loken, Director of Science Translation at EAT, and Tamara Lucas, Executive Editor at The Lancet, to discuss the results of a new study that sets out scientific targets for a healthy sustainable global food system for future generations and the online attention it received.
Read the study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31788-4/fulltext
Explore the details page: https://www.altmetric.com/details/54023086?src=bookmarklet
Feb 22, 2019
Vitamin D
Do Vitamin D supplements really have a positive impact on our health?
In this month's episode, we speak to JoAnn Manson, Professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US, about the results of a clinical trial looking at the effects of vitamin D and the huge amount of online attention it received.
Read the paper: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1809944
Explore the details page: https://www.altmetric.com/details/51057979?src=bookmarklet