Scholarly Communication Services - Altmetrics: Essentials

Thanks to its online availablility, the flow, dissemination, and interaction of research can now be tracked and analyzed beyond what was traditionally accepted as the signifiers of prestige and impact.  Altmetrics are defined as metrics and qualitative data that can be used in addition to traditional impact factors that describe a work's impact.  Due to variations of what influences impact and prestige among disciplines, many fields are using altmetrics as another or additional way to demonstrate the impact.  Here are a few examples of altmetrics:

• Amount of coverage in blogs and media outlets (newspapers, magazines, or news).
• Bookmarks or saves to online reference managers such as Mendeley.
• Mentions in social network sites such as Twitter or Facebook.
• Favorites or likes in sites such as Slideshare, YouTube or various social media platforms.
• Recommendations in sites such as Figshare.
• Comments or annotations from readers in platforms such as PubMed Commons.
• Noted in post-peer review resources such as F1000Prime.

Altmetrics have the potential to answer these questions:

• How many times is my work downloaded?
• Who is reading my work?
• Has my work been covered by news outlets?
• Who is commenting on my work?
• How is my work being shared?
• Which countries are looking at my work?
• Is my work making a social impact?