This talk will cover altmetrics basics, examples of how it is being used in publishing, benefits to authors and editors and tools to get started. Anne Harvey Regional Sales Director, Digital Science Presented at the 2015 Wiley Publishing Seminar, 5 November, Melbourne, Australia.

1. The Value of
altmetrics in
Publishing
a.harvey@digital-sicence.com
altmetricexplorer.com
Anne Harvey
Regional Sales Director - APAC

2. In this session, we’ll cover…
Introduction to altmetrics
Publisher examples of using altmetrics data
Altmetric tools
Altmetric Explorer
Further help
1
2
3
4
5

3. By the end of this session…
You’ll have:
• A clear understanding of altmetrics and how to use them
• How to identify research with attention using Altmetric’s tools
• Practical ideas and examples of using altmetrics data
• Know where to get further help

4. Part 1:
Introduction to altmetrics

5. Journal Impact Factor
Citation counts
H-index
Number of publications
o Attention to research outputs in non-traditional sources, e.g. policy
documents, news, blogs and social media
o Indicators of research impact
o Help understand how research is being received and used
o Complementary to traditional citation-based analysis
What are altmetrics?
Mentions in news reports
References in policy
Mentions in social media
Wikipedia citations
Reference manager
readers… etc.
ACADEMIC
ATTENTION
BROADER
ATTENTION
Alternative metrics
“altmetrics”
+Traditional metrics
Traditional
bibliometrics

6. Why altmetrics?
Real-time, immediate feedback on attention to
scholarly content
Track attention to a broad range of research outputs,
e.g. articles, posters, data sets, working papers
Showcase attention to a research output beyond
academia
Provide a more coherent understanding of research
attention
1
2
3
4

7. Interpreting altmetrics data
Attention: e.g. RTs, shares
Engagement: Analysis,
discussion, reviews
Impact: e.g. shapes
policy, influences
working practices

8. Part 2: How are
publishers using
altmetrics?

9. Monitor popular outputs
What’s popular across your content this week? Why is it being mentioned?
Re-post to social media channels, update editors, etc.

10. Review Attention!

11. Benchmark marketing campaigns
How successful are your marketing campaigns? Is your content being picked up
in the news?
Before After

12. Current awareness for academic editors
Provide academic editors with summaries on the top papers in their journal,
discipline or across competitor journals.
Keep track of the
most popular
papers in a
specific discipline.

13. Identify bloggers and regular tweeters
Identify key opinion leaders in online
communities
Understanding
different online
communities will
help you reach
them more
effectively.
!

14. Monitor competitor journals
Use ‘journal view’
to see which
journals received
the most
attention over a
set time period.

15. Use badges in marketing material
1. Right-click on a donut in the
Altmetric Explorer and save the
image.
2. Insert the static donut into an
e-mail newsletter.
3. Link to the corresponding
Altmetric article details page:
http://www.altmetric.com/
details.php?citation_id=xxxxx
The link can be found
by clicking “Open
report in new tab”
under “Actions” in the
Explorer pop-out.

16. What!are!the!benefits?!

17. For!authors!
• See!who!is!talking!about!their!work,!and!what!
they’re!saying!
• Be;er!manage!their!online!reputa>on!–!
ensure!work!isn’t!being!misinterpreted!
• Find!evidence!of!influence!and!engagement!
for!job!and!funding!applica>ons!

18. For!publishers!
• Monitor!the!success!of!marke>ng!and!PR!
ac>vity!
• Track!which!content!is!of!most!interest!!
• Iden>fy!new!audiences!(or!markets)!!
• Discover!poten>al!authors!or!reviewers!
• Report!back!to!editorial!boards!!
and!society!stakeholders!

19. Part 3:
Altmetric Tools

20. Each day, we track
~44,000 new
mentions of research
across sources incl.
social media, news,
and policy docs.
That’s 1 mention
every 2 seconds!
Each week,
~50k
unique items
are shared.
Mentions range in
complexity, from
quick shares to
comprehensive
reviews.
Altmetric data, March 2015
18m
mentions of
~4m scholarly
outputs
Altmetric in numbers: mentions and shares

21. What sources does Altmetric track?
News outlets
• Over 1,300 sites
• Manually curated list
• Text mining
• Global coverage
Social media
and blogs
• Twitter, Facebook,
Google+
• Public posts only
• Manually curated list
Reference
managers
• Mendeley, CiteULike
• Reader counts
• Don’t count towards the
Altmetric score
Other sources
• Wikipedia
• YouTube
• Reddit
• F1000
• Pinterest
• Q&A
Post-publication
peer review
• Publons
• PubPeer
Policy documents
• NICE Evidence
• Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change
• Many more…

22. How does Altmetric aggregate online attention?
Search for links
to papers.
Follow a list of
sources.
Collate
attention.
Display data in
“Altmetric details
pages”.
E.g. blogs, news, policy
documents, social media.
Automatically link
searching and
text mining.
Disambiguation of
mentioned items across
different versions.
Collecting attention data
Reporting attention data
Altmetric Details Page.
All research outputs with
mentions have an Altmetric
Details Page in our
database.

23. The Altmetric Bookmarklet
The free Bookmarklet lets you instantly
retrieve altmetrics data for any article.
To install, go to: http://altmetric.it

24. The Altmetric Badges
Donut
Standard badges
Scoreless donut
Scoreless bar

25. 1
2
3
1
2
3
Altmetric Details Pages
Estimate attention with the “Altmetric score”.
Monitor mentions in the mainstream news.
See all the conversations and mentions.

26. What is the Altmetric donut?
The Altmetric donut visualizes which are sources discussing an item.
In the Altmetric Explorer, hover the cursor over the donut visualization
to see the appropriate legend for an item.
Each source is colour coded:

27. Volume Sources Authors
The score for an article rises as
more people mention it.
Each source category
contributes a different base
amount to the final score.
How often the author of each
mention talks about scholarly
articles influences the
contribution of the mention.
What is the Altmetric score of attention?
The Altmetric score provides an indicator of the attention surrounding a
research output.
It represents a weighted approximation of all the attention we’ve picked up for
a research output and is is calculated according to three facets:
Read more about the score here: altmetric.com/blog/scoreanddonut/

28. And finally…

29. What can the data tell you?
What type of attention is this research
receiving?
Where has this article received the most
traction?!
Which countries are engaging most with
the content?
Has this article influenced policy, spurred
new research, or engaged a new audience?!
Are reactions to this article positive or negative?
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

30. Remember that the numbers don’t tell
you…
Quality of the paper
Quality of the researchers
Whole story

31. Questions?
E-mail: a.harvey@digital-science.com
Website: altmetric.com
www.altmetricexplorer.com