Writings on the wall: libraries supporting institutions intelligence through credible bibliometric information

HERMES - Higher Education Research MEtrics System is a project of HEAL-Link (Hellenic Academic Libraries Link), the consortium of Greek Academic Libraries.

The project aims at the development of a common set of tools and methods in order to gather, analyze and visualize the research publications of the Greek Universities.

It is both a data visualization system and a lightweight methodology that produces transparent quantitative indicators.

The relative advantage of the system is the 3D visualizations that are projected on common plain walls, which are turned interactive by the use of advanced sensing techniques.

Users employ gestures to intuitively manipulate data on a very large scale. Thus, the application remains user-friendly, not requiring any special skills, ensuring high quality user experience (UX).

Interactive graphic representations serve to make bibliometric data accessible, tractable, and digestible.

The system produces fifteen primary key indicators that refer both to individuals and to collective bodies, such as Departments and Institutions. The main dimensions of measuring are productivity, sliced in time (one & three years) and in subject, response (citations) and collaborations.