LibGuides: Measuring Research Impact Using Web of Science, Altmetrics, and Other Sources: Altmetics: Alternative Impact Metrics

Altmetrics Defined

Altmetrics are alternative metrics for calculating the impact of scholarly work. They are designed to take into account other modes of communication about scholarship--not just traditional citations but also tweets, blog posts, online reviews, shares, and so on. Altmetrics can help you demonstrate the impact of your work online, where conversations may be taking place long before citations appear in traditional publications.

Altmetrics Tools

ImpactStory
ImpactStory is an open-source, web-based service that aggregates impact metrics from a variety of sources. Metrics include blog posts, tweets, Facebook mentions, citeulike bookmarks, figshare downloads and views, github forks and stars, and many more. This service comes with a $60 fee/year.
Plum Analytics
PlumX is a subscription service that measures individual researcher impact but also outputs by labs, departments and other groups. Plum Analytics allows you to embed these metrics on websites via API. Note: in January, 2014, Plum Analytics was purchased by EBSCO.
Altmetric.com
"Altmetric tracks what people are saying about papers online on behalf of publishers, authors, libraries and institutions."
PLoS Impact Explorer
This tool "mashes up altmetrics data from Altmetric.com with articles from the Public Library of Science (PLoS). Check which articles are seeing the most buzz from social media sites, newspapers and in online reference managers."

Libraries

Measuring Research Impact Using Web of Science, Altmetrics, and Other Sources

Altmetrics Defined

Altmetrics Tools

Further Reading