Metrics (2) - Altmetric Explorer

All research has an impact. But it is much more than the number of citation counts in academic journals. It also includes societal impact: the extent to which research is shared en discussed via news, blogs and other social media platforms. We call these alternative metrics, altmetrics. Measuring the impact of research within society is also important for academics, policymakers and providers of funding. In this second blog post on metrics within historical research, I will discuss altmetrics and journals.

Altmetric Explorer (from Altmetric.com) is a tool that can be used to map the social impact of research. In this case the number of mentionings in the news, government publications (policy documents), Wikipedia and social media, like blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These alternative indicators measure the degree of social involvement.  

Compared with citation counts, altmetrics are available significantly faster. Since response on social media or in the news can be given immediately after an academic publication.

Searching for journals
After logging in with your UvA login/password on Altmetric Explorer, there are several search options. The easiest way to search for journals is the option: JOURNALS 
By choosing this option you will see an overview of journals containing mentioned publications from researchers affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. 

You could narrow the search by:

• Typing in History to view the collection relating to history journals with mentions on UvA academics.
• Click on a specific journal-title to view the mentions.

E-mail alerts

If you want to stay informed about the mentions of a journal publication, you can make an e-mail alert by choosing the option: save search.

You can see an overview of your saved searches via the icon on the left side of the page. Here you can choose when you want to receive an e-mail. For instance, if you choose: monthly e-mail, the outcome of the search will be sent to you once a month.  

There is an extensive handout made on how to use Altmetrics Explorer.

 

How are outputs scored? 

The quality of the scores is based on the number of mentions and the quality of the source. A mention in a news item of NRC.nl will score higher than a mention on a blog post. And a blog post is considered more significant than a mention on twitter. The altmetric number is only based on public sources, not discussions on private forums and groups (closed Facebook or LinkedIn groups for instance). 

An item is added when it contains a link to the publication (journal article, DOI, PMID or institutional repository). More information on the scoring of the output can be found on Altmetric Explorer Help

Similarly to Journal Impact Factors, the number of scores within Altmetric is based on the attention an academic publication receives, not an indication of its quality. There could, for instance, be negative commentaries.  

Questions on impact via metrics?
More information on bibliometrics can be found on our website. At our UvA Library, my colleague Kasper Abcouwer specializes in metrics. If you have any questions on bibliometrics, then please contact him via e-mail.

Altmetrics Explorer can also give insight into the mentions on books and scholars. In my next blog post on metrics (part 3), I will discuss metrics and academics within our UvA-View tool. 

The images in this post are taken from Altmetric Explorer of the journal: Comparative Studies in Society & History (from October 2018).