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Research Impact: Altmetrics

What are altmetrics?

Traditional impact metrics include citation count and h-index, which limit the perspective of an article's impact to scholarly journals. As a way to supplement and broaden the view of an article's impact, alternative metrics ("altmetrics") track other attention and engagement such as:

  • Mentions and engagement in social media
  • Number of views and downloads
  • Mentions in blogs and news media
  • Citations in patents, Wikipedia pages, and policy documents
  • Saves/exports to citation management software

... and any other measures of engagements with and impact of your work.

Altmetric.com Bookmarklet

image of Altmetric bookmarklet data showing attention score inside a multicolored circle followed by other metrics

  • Free bookmarklet retrieves Altmetric.com data on web pages with DOIs
  • Altmetric Attention Score (number inside circle) is a measure of overall attention
  • Other data include tweets, news mentions, Mendeley readers, etc.
  • Integrated into many journal websites

Telling Your Story with Altmetrics

You can use impact metrics, including altmetrics, to present your scholarly work in multiple ways:

  • Narrative statements in promotion and tenure packets
  • Annotations on curriculum vitae
  • Narrative statements in grant applications

... and any other context where you need to demonstrate your impact.

PlumX Metrics

image of PlumX metrics data from Scopus

 

 

  • Available in Scopus, EBSCOhost databases, and on some journal websites
  • No overall attention score
  • Captures citations in clinical sources like DynaMed

Other Altmetrics Tools