Altmetrics

Monitoring the impact of individual articles, not just journals

Researchers, funders, and institutions are increasingly concerned about the impact of their work and returns on their investments.

The traditional methods of counting citations and downloads to measure impact misses much, not least the reception to published research among wider society. As a result, there has been a desire in the scholarly community to gain a better understanding of the reach and attention a paper receives beyond the academic sphere.

"Altmetrics," or alternative metrics, have evolved help answer those questions by tracking and collating mentions and shares of academic research papers and other outputs (such as datasets) across traditional and social media outlets, blogs, public policy documents, post-publication peer-review forums, and online reference managers.

Altmetrics on the journals of The Rockefeller University Press

Altmetrics data is now available on articles in the JCB, JEM, and JGP.

Altmetric LLP, who provide the data, collect article level metrics and the online conversations around research papers by tracking a selection of online indicators (both scholarly and non-scholarly) to give a measurement of digital impact and reach. "Mentions" that contain links to any version of the same paper are picked up, and collated. The result is the Altmetric score.

The Altmetric data available on the journal articles allows you to:

• See the attention that each article is receiving from nontraditional sources, including:
  mainstream and social media
  published policy documents
  online reference managers
  post-publication peer-review forums
• Explore the conversations surrounding the content
• Identify recent papers your peers think are interesting

The Altmetric score

The score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a scholarly article has received. It is derived from three main factors:

1. Volume
   The score for an article rises as more people mention it.
2. Sources
   Each category of mention contributes a different base amount to the final score.
3. Authors
   How often the author of each mention talks about scholarly articles influences the contribution of the mention.

On the JCB, JEM, and JGP platforms, the overall score for each article is displayed via the “Article Usage Statistics” link on the left of the page.

You can click on the Altmetric logo to be taken to the article details page, which will show you each mention of the paper:

The ring-shaped donut visualization will differ in color depending on what sources the article has mentions from—blue for twitter, yellow for blogs, red for mainstream media sources, and so on.

What can I do with this data?

Altmetrics can be useful to researchers who are keen to build their online presence, demonstrate the broader impacts of their work, and increase their chances of receiving grant funding. To make the most of the data around your articles you might like to:

• Use the Altmetric details page to identify coverage and wider dissemination of your research that you can evidence in CVs or funding applications.
• See who is talking about your research: identify potential new collaborators and build relationships with key influencers.
• Monitor other research in your field, and know how it has been received among a broader audience.
• Manage your online reputation: respond to commentary about your work and actively engage with the conversation.

Missing mentions

If you spot any mentions missing for a paper, please use this form to report this to Altmetric, who will review your suggestions and add them where applicable. You can find more information about why some mentions may not have been picked up here.