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Article level metrics: a valuable way to gauge an article’s real-time impact

 
on 3 September 2015 - 5:05pm

Citations are a well-established measure of research impact. The more times an article is cited in other works, the more recognition and validation the research receives. Over time these scholar-to-scholar references have come to be the established standard. But when you are researching in the fast-paced, open, social and digital world, academic citations alone cannot always give you the immediate feedback you need. Citation metrics are not quickly available, and it often takes months before an article begins to be cited.

One type of article level metric (ALM), called altmetrics (or alternative metrics) can give you an indication of real-time engagement. Up-to-the-minute altmetrics (such as social media mentions) can be combined with traditional ALMs (such as citations or downloads) to present a well-rounded view of how an article is being bookmarked, used, discussed and shared. By capturing mentions of research made via tweets, Facebook posts, mainstream news media, blogs, and in other non-traditional online sources, altmetrics can present a more complete picture of the online activity surrounding an individual article, as soon as it is published.

ScienceDirect screen shot 1

ScienceDirect has included ALMs and altmetrics on articles in a few popular journals since 2011, partnering with altmetrics provider Altmetric.com to capture online mentions in mainstream and social media and other web-based communities. The number has expanded, and today 250 Elsevier journals now feature these metrics.

Where it is attracting attention and who it is influencing?

 

For articles in participating journals, ScienceDirect displays a Metrics tab where you’ll see an overview of the article’s citations, Altmetric score (a weighted count of attention) and sources of mentions. You can evaluate where the article is making an impact, in what context and whom it’s influencing, right alongside available Scopus citation metrics.

ScienceDirect screen shot 2


Social and digital combined with traditional citations help make your research more effective

 

An article’s social and media attention does not necessarily indicate scholarly credibility. It does helps you gauge broader community impact, as well as the influence of journals, authors and the articles themselves on the scientific community. By incorporating altmetrics that evidence where and how often articles have been mentioned, plus being able to see and explore what is being said (positive and negative) about those articles, you can:

•    More deeply evaluate and understand the attention an article receives

•    Use the altmetrics data for your own articles to demonstrate the broader reach of your research to funders or other key stakeholders

•    Find new channels to explore for relevant content or potential collaborators, for example:

  1. Start following someone on Twitter who is working in the same field
  2. Begin reading a science blog you didn’t know existed before

Discover how an article is having a broader impact and develop strategies to help make your own research more visible using article level metrics found on ScienceDirect. We welcome your feedback and encourage you to share your metric experience with us @sciencedirect.

This post was contributed by:


Nathan Westgarth, Product Manager, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, London

 

See Also...
https://blog.sciencedirect.com/posts/article-level-metrics-a-valuable-way-to-gauge-an-article-s-real-time-impact
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