Research Metrics in Altmetric

Introduction

The Altmetric database consists of more than 130 million mentions on nearly 33 million research outputs (as of June 2021), including journal articles, datasets, images, white papers, reports, and more. Altmetric is able to track mentions of research outputs (e.g., articles, chapters, etc.) if the outputs have an identifier (e.g., DOI, RePEc, etc.) and if they are mentioned in a source tracked by their text mining algorithm. The sources tracked include public policy documents, patents, mainstream media, blogs, online reference managers, Wikipedia, post-publication peer-review platforms, social media, as well as citations in the scholarly literature. 

What are altmetrics?

Altmetrics are usually simple counts of mentions of a particular scholarly output (e.g., journal article, book chapter, dataset, etc.) in contexts beyond the scholarly literature. Contexts of interest often include mainstream media, resources like Wikipedia, blogs, policy documents, and patents. The coverage depends on the provider, of which there are two: Altmetric (owned by Digital Science) and PlumX (owned by Elsevier).

What you need

Before you get started, we recommend having a copy of the cv handy and a file to record the data. We use spreadsheets, but if you prefer word processing tables, those work too. A sample table structure is below. 

How to access Altmetric data

Dimensions

If you plan to use Dimensions to get citation metrics, you can access Altmetric directly from the Dimensions record. See the Dimensions recipe for detailed instructions. 

Publisher embedded links

Many publishers have embedded Altmetric badges in their platforms. To access the Altmetric data, you can click on the badge from the landing page for your article, dataset, or other output. 

Bookmarklet

You can install the Altmetric Bookmarklet in your favorite browser.

1. In your preferred browser, go to https://www.altmetric.com/products/free-tools/bookmarklet/
2. Register to get a link and instructions for installing the Bookmarklet.

Altmetric Details Page

Altmetric Attention Score

The Altmetric data include a composite metric called the Altmetric Attention Score, displayed in a donut. The overall score "is an automatically calculated, weighted count of all of the attention a research output has received." The AAS is dynamic and can change over time. The colors represented in the donut indicate the types of sources in which the output is receiving attention. For more details about the way in which the AAS is calculated, see the Metrics Toolkit post. 

Even more useful than the attention counts is the ability to discover the context in which an output was mentioned. Thus, altmetrics can provide both quantitative and qualitative evidence to highlight the impact of your scholarship. Just as for citation metrics, we recommend providing context for the counts whenever possible. Useful context for altmetrics can be the ranking of the output as compared to outputs of similar age, source, and topic. 

We typically gather the following information from the Altmetric database.

• Altmetric Attention Score in Context (ranking)
• Mention counts for relevant platforms
• Notable mentions or citations

Summary Tab

“Mentioned by” data sources provide a high-level overview of where the discussion and engagement with an output is taking place. Next Step: Explore what is being said and who is saying it.

Citations from Dimensions are harvested from existing databases and extracted from publisher records. Dimensions is a new source of citation metrics, launched in 2018. The platform is free for personal use. Dimensions includes nearly 90 million publication records, 3.6 million grants, 380,000 clinical trials, 34 million patents, with about 4 billion links between these records. About 9 million of these records have Altmetric data.

The Twitter Demographics tab provides a map of Twitter user locations.

Since Altmetric is no longer able to harvest current data from the Mendeley platform, we do not recommend use of this data. The Attention Score in Context tab provides contextualized information about the performance of the output in the context of the journal/venue and outputs of similar age.

The Attention Score in Context tab provides ranking information about the performance of the output in the context of the journal/venue and outputs of similar age.

Platform-specific Tabs

In most cases (e.g., Facebook & Twitter), Altmetric is only able to see and count content that is visible to the public (e.g., not private posts or direct messages).

Each source item is hyperlinked back to the original source, which you can view to understand the citation context. Within the News, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other tabs, you can click on the source for each mention to explore the context in which the output was cited or mentioned. In the free version of Altmetric, all mentions may not be visible but will be reflected in the numeric counts on the left side of the page. 

If you find a particular mention that you want to include in your proposal, dossier, or application, you can capture a snapshot of it in Zotero or create a persistent link (Internet Archive Save Page Now or Perma.cc)

How to use and talk about altmetrics

The value of altmetrics as evidence will depend on your case. In general, altmetrics can be useful indicators for attention, engagement, and readership. Perhaps more importantly, they can provide a way for trace back to the context in which you work was shared or discussed, which can sometimes tell compelling stories. Below, we have provided a few examples for how you might talk about or use altmetrics evidence in your dossier.

My 2018 article "A retrospective and prospective look at strategies to increase adolescent HPV vaccine uptake in the United States" has been widely shared by colleagues and saved by 97 Mendeley users. It is cited in a Dutch policy document (source: Altmetric) and ranked in the top 3% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric.

The 2018 article published in College & Research Libraries has advanced the conversation about student privacy and learning analytics in higher education. It has been widely shared by librarians on social media and mentioned in blogs, news outlets, and policy documents. It is in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric (source: Altmetric).