Research Impact

Altmetrics, or alternative metrics, are new ways to track and measure scholarly influence and research impact in real time.  They measure the attention an article (or any sort of online publication) has received online, including social media mentions, news coverage, downloads, bookmarks, blog mentions, etc.  They are complementary to traditional bibliometrics such as the Journal Impact Factor and personal citation indices like the H-index. ​

"Altmetrics should be used in parallel with impact factors and citation counts to add a more nuanced, qualitative side to impact." (A Brief Introduction to Altmetrics for Researchers) See the Nature Jobs blogpost "Metrics with Meaning: Shaping Your Scholarly Identity" on how tracking scholarly scientific output can be beneficial to a researcher's career.

Many organizations are already actively collecting or displaying altmetrics data: popular scientific publishers (PLOS, Cell Press, Nature Publishing Group); platforms or online communities (Mendeley, F1000, Scopus); and repositories (PMC, eScholarship@UMassChan).  There are more every day.

Learn more at altmetric.com. 

Pros

• Fast
• Allow assessment directly at the article level (rather than the journal)
• Accommodate other products: posters, datasets, blog posts, etc.
• Measure "hidden impact" (impact without citations)
• Provide evidence of impact for CVs, tenure packages, & grant applications
• Provide context and meaning for download counts
• Provide evidence of public impact and engagement for funders & other stakeholders
• Complementary to traditional citation-based metrics

Cons

• Impact can be exaggerated through data manipulation ("gaming")
• Can be difficult to interpret
• Rely on 3rd-party data souces
• Metrics can only be accurate if name and object information is accurate