EP 04: ALTMETRICS | 2-MIN METRICS SERIES

Описание: In our previous episodes, we talked about traditional impact metrics based on citation counts.

In this episode, we want to introduce you to alternative metrics, generally shortened to "altmetrics", these give researchers insights into how people engage with their work. They can be particularly beneficial for Arts and Humanities scholars that are poorly served by traditional measures of citation impact. More and more researchers are beginning to use altmetrics to demonstrate their impact beyond citations.

Altmetrics have several advantages:

❶ They're FAST! Unlike citations, altmetrics can be instantly available!
❷ They're DIVERSE, gathered from multiple sources, such as Twitter, Mendeley and Facebook)
❸ They cover MULTIPLE FORMATS such as datasets, computer code, music, images, webpages and more!

Two major altmetrics providers are PlumX and altmetric.com.

Let’s check out Scopus to see how PlumX presents altmetrics there. We will use one of Prof. Christy Cheung's journal articles as an example.

If we click on “View all metrics”, we will see that this article has a total of 677 citations and an impressive FWCI of 22.31. Down here is a summary of all PlumX Metrics. The colourful Plum Print represents 5 categories of metrics and the size of each varies depending on that category's value.

Citations gives you the traditional impact measures. Usage shows you the number of views or downloads. Captures is a leading indicator of future citations because it records users who have saved the work in a reference manager. Mentions are references made to the work in online news, media, blogs or Wikipedia. Lastly, social media shows the number of shares and likes on various platforms.

Metrics in altmetric.com are presented in the form of a donut with each colour indicating a different source of attention.

whatarealtmetrics.com has a helpful page on how you can use altmetrics in a CV, for grant applications or for promotion and tenure documentations: http://www.whatarealtmetrics.com/how

Be aware that altmetrics are still in their infancy. Just like traditional metrics, they have limitations and can also be easily manipulated.

That’s it for now. Watch our other 2-min metrics episodes to find out more!

#metrics #researchimpact #bibliometrics #scholcomm #altmetrics