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:
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:
PlumX metrics from Plum Analytics can be found in article records in databases including EBSCOHost, Engineering 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, 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.
