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Entomology

A guide to the University of Maryland Libraries' services, all in support of the study of entomology

Altmetrics

What are altmetrics? 

Altmetrics, a term coined by Jason Priem as a shortened form of "alternative metrics," is defined by Priem, Groth, & Taraborelli (2012) as "the study and use of scholarly measures based on activity in online tools and environments."

Altmetrics measure research impact beyond citations and traditional citation metrics. Examples of the kinds of uses and discussions of research that may be measured by altmetrics include:

  • Mentions on social media like Twitter or Facebook 
  • Shares on research networks like ResearchGate or Academia.edu
  • Discussions on blogs
  • Downloads of papers from websites
  • Saves to citation managers like Zotero or Mendeley 

Altmetrics may also try to capture the impact of non-article research like blog posts, datasets, software, and code. 

Where can I find altmetrics? 

Many library databases are increasingly working to incorporate altmetrics into their results interfaces. A few examples are below:

 

Plum printPlumX metrics from Plum Analytics can be found in article records in databases including EBSCOHostEngineering Village, and Science Direct. Article records may be accompanied by a Plum Print, a digital badge that indicates the strength of that article's metrics in 5 categories: citations, usage, captures, mentions, and social media.

 

Altmetric donutAltmetric, a UK-based company, creates donut badges. You can find their altmetrics attached to article records in databases like the Wiley Online Library.  The colors of the donut represent avenues of attention, and each article receives an Altmetric Attention Score. 

 

Altmetric Bookmarklet

Reading a paper and want to find out its Altmetric details? Install this free bookmarklet for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Simply drag the button to your bookmarks bar, navigate to a journal article page, and hit "Altmetric it!" The bookmarklet will give the Altmetric score and provide further details about where that article has been mentioned through various outlets. There must be a DOI available for the bookmarklet to work.