Altmetrics (or alternative metrics) are alternative ways to measure the impact of a publication, providing article-level evidence of the societal impact of research, in terms of its mentions in social media, Wikipedia and other platforms, news sources and policy documents. They can help researchers understand how their outputs are being shared and discussed via social media and online, serve as a complement to traditional, citation-based metrics, and are a way to showcase how much and what a wider range of types of attention a research output has received in society.
Altmetrics can include:
Altmetric and PlumX are altmetric services that have been integrated into Haris public portal.
Altmetric monitors not only social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn, but also public policy documents, blogs, Wikipedia, and mainstream media, in order to show mentions of a research output. The Altmetric Attention Score is illustrated by a donut whose different colours each represent a different source of attention.
In addition to mentions in blogs and news articles, social media, usage (such as clicks and downloads), and captures (such as bookmarks and favourites), PlumX also shows references in traditional citation indexes such as Scopus and EBSCO.
Learn more about the metrics in Altmetric and PlumX.
