Over the past few weeks we’ve been talking about what altmetrics are, what Altmetric.com data can show you, and some ideas for how researchers might use it. In this post you’ll find some real-life use cases featuring researchers who have gone ahead and done just that.
Altmetrics have been developed over the last few years as a way of monitoring the online conversations around scholarly research. The data can be used alongside traditional indicators of impact, such as the Impact Factor, to see how an article has been received, shared and communicated beyond the the academic sphere. The aim of this introductory blog post is to provide some context around the data and the sources Altmetric (a London-based provider of altmetrics data) tracks, and to explain some of the insights that can be gained by looking at the data.