Jacqueline Sachse: Nudging attention & shaping relevance. How citation rates influence academic literature assessment
Citations and altmetrics are prominently displayed in academic search systems, but what role do they actually play when researchers decide which literature deserves closer attention? Drawing on an exploratory user study with fifty researchers from the life and social sciences, this talk traces how researchers use scientometric indicators alongside other relevance clues when assessing scholarly articles. Participants evaluated predefined search results while thinking aloud, allowing their interactions with experimentally modified indicators to be examined across the search process.
The findings suggest that indicators shape attention more than final relevance judgements. Highly cited articles attracted more attention during search-result inspection, with participants often interpreting indicators through a simple “more-is-better” heuristic. At later stages, however, relevance judgements were grounded mainly in topical criteria. Increased attention to highly cited articles therefore did not automatically translate into a corresponding increase in perceived relevance.
The talk argues that scientometric indicators function as stage-dependent relevance clues rather than straightforward proxies for relevance. They can shape researchers’ attention without necessarily determining what they ultimately consider relevant. This highlights the importance of examining relevance assessment as a process in which attention and relevance are closely connected, but not interchangeable.
22 Jul 2026
Cornelia Schendzielorz /Justo Serrano-Zamora /Staffan Edling: Science under pressure: Engaging with science and democracy in hybrid sites
Informationen zum Master-Studiengang Wissenschaftsforschung der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:
https://hu.berlin/ma_wifo
Science and politics are becoming increasingly intertwined. Our project starts from two related expressions of this development: increasing political expectations on science and the proliferation of sites that hybridize science and politics. Against this background, we seek to understand (i) how the potentially conflicting demands that scientists face as they engage with political actors feed back into epistemic practice, (ii) how epistemic practices of scientists interact with other epistemic practices and modes of representation at hybrid sites and (iii) how democratic organizational governance interact with epistemic practices. To explore these questions, we have selected 4-6 hybrid sites, including think tanks, political research institutes, NGOs, and social movements for an empirical multi-method analysis combining participant observation with qualitative interviews and document analysis. The project aims to develop a concept of epistemic-political orientations (EPOs) and generate innovative theoretical analysis of the influence of political actors on epistemic practices. Through empirical work, it explores convergences and divergences of democratic and epistemic practices in hybrid organizations in order to gain leverage on broader theoretical questions on the interaction between democracy and the sciences.
24 Jun 2026
Claudia Göbel: A fresh look at science-public relations, their problems, and digital transformations
Informationen zum Master-Studiengang Wissenschaftsforschung der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:
https://hu.berlin/ma_wifo
The use of digital media in science is not only linked to profound reconfigurations of professional research and the publication system. It also involves changes in the relations of science with broader publics. Public engagement is proliferating online and approaches like Citizen Science promise to extend public participation in research. However, such activities remain riddled with problems. Deficit-model assumptions about publics are persisting and also science skepticism is amplified on social media. The talk presents a refined analytical framework of the multiple publics of science for studying such phenomena and their predecessors. Drawing on the sociological notion of 'inclusion in society', it re-examines popular science audiences and amateur researchers as contributing to the production and evaluation of scientific knowledge claims. On this basis, the talk asks how relations between professional scientists and their non-professional counterparts are transformed under current conditions of digital mediatization.
Who has been a guest on RMZ Science Works
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Sheena F Bartscherer
Sven Ulpts
Bart Penders
Sarahanne Field
Marco Seeber
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Host of RMZ Science Works?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
