On this page:
“Altmetrics are very useful for making sure early career researchers get recognised for their contribution to their field.”
Social media mentions
Evidence of attention for a scholarly work on social media (sometimes known as altmetrics) may be useful as an indicator of interest in the work beyond academic circles. Several companies collate altmetric data by identifying the DOI of the original work in the social media trail.
Be mindful that it's not appropriate to use altmetric scores to evaluate or rank scholarly works, as social media attention is easily manipulated and may reflect controversy rather than acclaim.
Sources of altmetrics:
- Install the free Altmetric bookmarklet to instantly see the online mentions for any output with a DOI. As well as social media and mainstream media mentions, Altmetric.com counts blogs, Wikipedia citations, public policy documents, Mendeley bookmarks and several more sources.
- PlumX metrics include traditional citations and usage (views, downloads, captures) as well as mentions in social and mainstream media. For a full breakdown of mentions and contexts, mouse over the widget where you see it embedded in a host platform.
For some hints and tips about using social media to promote your own or other people's research, start from the University of Hull's guide to Research Networking.