What is Altmetrics?
As a term, altmetrics is formed from the combination of “alternative” and “metrics”. It can be defined as “a set of methods based in the social web used to measure, track, and analyze scholarly output”. Altmetrics have three distinctive characteristics:
- Connected to the Internet, especially the social media
- The idea of something “new” – new metrics and new data in the social web
- Connected to scholarship
Advantages:
- Use more sources to generate data, including social media
- Measure the impact more precisely in some subject areas e.g. arts and humanities
Can recognize if a citation is made in a positive or negative context
Limitations:
- The use of social media might not be relevant to all disciplines
- Altmetics often are product of commercial companies which raises concerns about bias
- Preprints and postprints might be counted in altmetrics which can create discrepancy in data
Categories:
Similarly, to the traditional bibliometrics, the altmetrics are three types: author-level, article-level, and journal-level.
