Assess impact before academic citations accrue
Assessment of Impact with Altmetrics
Article-level metrics, often referred to as “altmetrics”, are quantifiable measures at the article level that document the many ways in which both scientists and the general public engage with published research. Traditional metrics, which consider only citation count and journal name to assess impact, capture a narrow view of a work’s value and do so only after the accumulation of citations in academic literature. We partner with Altmetric to provide our metrics.
ALTMETRICS HELP TO...
Incorporate both academic and social metrics
Reflect changing influence of a work over time
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HOW TO MAKE ALTMETRICS WORK FOR YOU
Altmetrics track the reach, use, and reuse of research outcomes – from articles and figures to datasets and code – to help guide understanding of a work’s influence
Communicate Your Impact
Feature your article’s metrics on your public profile pages (lab website, personal blog, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, LinkedIn) to tell your article’s story to those who are interested in your work.
Let Your Funders Know
The ability to demonstrate that your research generates significant interest could help secure the advantage you need in a tight, competitive funding environment.
Raise Your Career Profile
Showcase the influence of your work when you apply for tenure and promotion or when you apply for positions outside academia—in policy, industry or elsewhere.
Discover Research That Matters
Altmetrics can guide you to the most important and influential work, whether for analyzing trends in a field of interest, staying abreast of recent discoveries or searching ideas for a new project.
Connect with Collaborators
Identify potential collaborators early, based upon the impact of their work and its relevance to yours. Altmetrics allow you to find them while they’re actively engaged in the research of interest.
HOW ARE ALTMETRICS CALCULATED?
Because altmetrics are available shortly after publication and are continually updated, they provide a snapshot of an article’s reach at any given moment.
PLOS articles will display counts from the following sources*:
*Altmetric discuss the sources they track here.
Viewed
PLOS Journals (HTML, PDF, XML)
Cited
Dimensions
Recommended
F1000 Prime
Discussed
Facebook, Reddit, X (formerly known as Twitter), Wikipedia
Saved
CiteULike, Mendeley
WHERE TO FIND AN ARTICLE'S METRICS
Evaluate influence directly on each page of any PLOS article by the number of saves, citations, views and shares, or click on the “Metrics” tab to dive deeper and learn more about how an article and its data or figures are viewed, saved, discussed and cited.
The “Media Coverage” tab collates media coverage into one place.
For privately funded researchers, article-level metrics “show supporters of our research program the impact that is made by their contributions” and are an “intuitive way for non-scientists to understand the relevance and interest of seemingly esoteric research.
Andrew Farke, PhD
Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology, Raymond M. Alf Musuem of Paleontology, Claremont, California
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