Altmetrics (Chapter from Beyond Bibliometrics: Harnessing Multidimensional Indicators of Scholarly Impact)

Abstract

This chapter discusses altmetrics (short for "alternative metrics"), an approach to uncovering previously-invisible traces of scholarly impact by observing activity in online tools and systems. I argue that citations, while useful, miss many important kinds of impacts, and that the increasing scholarly use of online tools like Mendeley, Twitter, and blogs may allow us to measure these hidden impacts. Next, I define altmetrics and discuss research on altmetric sources--both research mapping the growth of these sources, and scientometric research measuring activity on them. Following a discussion of the potential uses of altmetrics, I consider the limitations of altmetrics and recommend areas ripe for future research.

Published in Cronin, B., & Sugimoto, C. R. (2014). Beyond Bibliometrics: Harnessing Multidimensional Indicators of Scholarly Impact (1 edition). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/beyond-bibliometrics

References in corpus (6)

• Twitter mood predicts the stock market
• A principal component analysis of 39 scientific impact measures
• Altmetrics in the wild: Using social media to explore scholarly impact
• How the Scientific Community Reacts to Newly Submitted Preprints: Article Downloads, Twitter Mentions, and Citations
• Beyond citations: Scholars' visibility on the social Web
• Predicting the Future with Social Media

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Amplifying the Impact of Open Access: Wikipedia and the Diffusion of Science
• Does presence of social media plugins in a journal website result in higher social media attention of its research publications
• Can We Count on Social Media Metrics? First Insights into the Active Scholarly Use of Social Media