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Altmetrics
Altmetrics stands for alternative metrics and is a complementary method to bibliometrics. In short, altmetrics is data based on activities in social media and news media, among other things.
What is altmetrics?
Altmetri offers an insight into how much attention a scientific publication receives in various information channels such as social media, news media and official investigations.
In addition, metrics that show the usage of publications are included, such as the number of downloads or how many times they have been saved in other systems. Although these metrics are more technical in nature, they provide important information about how interesting a publication is and whether it has aroused enough interest that many people would want to download or save it.
Two leading players in altmetrics are Altmetric.com and Plum Analytics. University West has no subscriptions to these services, but for Altmetrics there are free resources for researchers.
Examples of altmetric sources are:
- Social networks (e.g., ResearchGate)
- Social bookmarks (e.g. Mendeley)
- Social data sharing (e.g. Figshare)
- Blogs
- Microblogging services (e.g. X)
- Wikis (e.g. Wikipedia)
What is altmetrics used for?
- Demonstrate a broader impact and involvement in funding applications and in your CV.
- Find out who is discussing your research and what they are saying.
- Monitor the interest in and dissemination of your research in social media and the news, both nationally and internationally.
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