Measuring Research Impact: Altmetrics

Altmetrics, or alternative metrics includes other impacts of a work, such as the number of article views, numbers of downloads, or mentions in social media and news media. These Include: 

• The number of views or downloads from a publishers web site or institutional repository indicate that someone is interested in reading an article.
• Mentions in blogs and news stories, or citations in Wikipedia, demonstrate that an article is reaching the intended audience.
• An article bookmarked in CiteULike, or shared in Mendeley by other researchers, is considered to be important to other researchers.
• Articles shared via Social Media (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn) have caught the attention of someone.

The development of Altmetrics can be seen as a response to the impact of social networking on the research environment.

When you share your research online or on social medial, always use the DOI link associated with your work. This ensure that the Altmetric tool will pick up engagement with your work. 

More information about DOI's can be found here.