LibGuides: Research & Postgraduate Students: Altmetrics

Altmetrics showcase the attention and influence of research.

Altmetrics are metrics and qualitative data that complement traditional, citation-based metrics.
Altmetrics measures the attention a resource generates online, on the social web, research blogs, bookmarks on reference managers and other sources.
Altmetrics can be applied to journal articles, books/book chapters, software, datasets, websites, videos, etc.
Altmetrics begin gathering online mentions and shares of your research as soon as it’s published, so you can get almost immediate feedback on how it’s being received long before any citation data becomes available.

Advantages of using Altmetrics

► They are quicker to gather than citation-based metrics

► They can capture more varied impacts than citation-based metrics

► They apply to more than journal articles and books

Limitations of using Altmetrics

► Altmetrics don’t tell the complete story

► Like any metric, there’s a possibility for gaming of altmetrics

► Altmetrics are moderately new, more research into their use is required

Attention Sources

The colours of the Altmetric donut each denote a different source of attention. The amount of each colour in the donut will change depending on which sources a research output has gotten attention from.

Altmetric currently tracks the following attention sources for mentions of research outputs (www.altmetric.com).