Impact Metrics

Altmetrics or alternative metrics measure the attention a resource generates on the web. These metrics complement traditional metrics.

What altmetrics count?

• Usage: the number of views and downloads where the resource is stored
• Mentions:  the number of mentions on social media (Twitter, specialised social media such as Researchgate, blog posts), policy documents, mainstream media,  Wikipedia articles, comments on peer review platforms such as Pubpeer or  Publons
• Captures: the number of captures in bookmarking tools such as Diigo or reference management tools as Mendeley and Citeulike
• Citations: in Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of science

A beginner's guide to Altmetrics from the Altmetric Youtube Channel

• Measure impact almost immediately: it is possible to monitor the online mentions of a work as soon as it is published
• Cover more diverse research outputs and sources than traditional metrics
• Broader non-academic audience:  it can show attention beyond the academic world, where people may use but not cite research

• Metrics can be easily manipulated
• Invisibility: If a publication is more accessible, it is more likely to be cited. Altmetrics benefit researchers who have a strong online profile and are active on social and other media
• Popularity does not always equals quality of research
• Lack of stability on data sources as some of them come and go (Ex : Connotea)
• Standards remain at the stage of development. In 2016, the US National Information Standards Organization (NISO) published a document in an effort to standardise practices concerning these new metrics
• Without the analysis of the context, altmetrics indicators can not measure the impact research but only the “attention gathered by a research publication”

• Platform owned by the data science company Digital Science
• Offers Bookmarklets for researchers and Institutional repository embeddable badges for free
• The bookmarklet allows to look up for metrics and underlying qualitative data.

• Open source web tool that requires registration
• With an ORCID identifier, authors can compile their metrics in a single profile.
• Produce reports with metrics and additional data such as geographical location, etc

• Public Library of science (PLOS) is an Open Access publisher
• Offers the Article Level Metrics (ALM) application, which is freely available for all PLOS articles.

• Web-based service, developed by publishing and technological professionals in 2013
• Free for researchers under registration and requires payment for publishers, founders and Institutions
• Compiles citations counts from Web of Science and altmetrics from Altmetric.com

Publisher websites

Some publishers such as Springer usually integrate Altmetrics data in their websites:

• With a badge or summary visualisation
• With metric reports that include download and page view information

• Platform owned by the data science company Digital Science
• Offers a subscription for an Almetric explorer. It enables an institution to track the attention that publications by an individual researcher or university/institute get in social media.

• Data company, owned since 2017 by Elsevier
• Offers several products such as PlumX metrics, which embeds the metrics about a publication directly into an institutional repository, or "Plum Prints" displaying article usage, mentions, citations and shares that are available through the Scopus database for items indexed in Scopus.

Functionalities
Detection of gaming	Gaming and spam detection	N/A	N/A	Gaming detection	N/A
Disambiguation	Disambiguate links	N/A	Disambiguate links and authors	Disambiguate links and authors using ORCID	Disambiguate authors using ORCID
Normalisation	Data (not score) normalisation	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
User access	Registration required for some products, a few products and trial versions for free	Open access, fees for profiles after trial, sign up required	Subscription based	Free access	Registration required, free access for researchers, fees for publishers, funders and institutions
Data sources
Social Bookmarking/ Reference managers	Mendeley, CiteULike, Delicious	Mendeley, CiteULike, Delicious	Mendeley, CiteULike, Delicious	Mendeley, CiteULike	Same as Altmetric
Video, Photo and slide sharing	YouTube, Podcasts	YouTube, Vimeo, slideshare	YouTube, Vimeo, slideshare	N/A	Same as Altmetric
Social networks	Facebook	Facebook	Facebook	Facebook	Same as Altmetric
Microblogging	Twitter	Twitter	Twitter	Twitter	Same as Altmetric
Recommendations and review systems	F1000, Reddit, Publons, Pubpeer	Publons, Pubpeer	Reddit, Goodreads, amazon reviews	F1000 prime, reddit	Same as Altmetric
Online digital libraries/repositories/information systems	PubMed Central (PMC)	PMC, PubMed, Scopus, CrossRef, Figshare, arXiv	PMC, PubMed, scopus, CrossRef, Figshare, WorldCat, Repec, Ebsco, Eprints, SSRN, dSpace	PMC, PubMed, Scopus, CrossRef, Figshare,  Web of Science	Same as Altmetric
Others	Policy documents and  global news in several languages

Sources:

• Erdt, Mojisola, Aarthy Nagarajan, Sei-Ching Joanna Sin, and Yin-Leng Theng. "Altmetrics: An Analysis of the State-of-the-Art in Measuring Research Impact on Social Media". Scientometrics 109, no. 2 (1 November 2016): 1117–66.
• Websites of Altmetrics providers