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Research Impact

Overview

Altmetrics, short for "alternative metrics," refer to the impact of scholarly outputs beyond traditional citation counts. While traditional metrics like citation counts focus primarily on academic citations in scholarly publications, altmetrics take into account various online sources and activities, such as:

  • Number of times an article has been viewed or downloaded from a journal website, or database
  • Number of times an article has been exported to a citation manager
  • Number of times an article has been emailed or shared on Facebook, Twitter or another social media site
  • Mentions in the mainstream media

Note: Altmetrics are not meant to replace traditional citation-based metrics but rather to complement them, providing a more comprehensive understanding of research impact and engagement in today's digital landscape.

Sources of Altmetrics

Altmetric.com is a platform and company that provides altmetrics data and tools for tracking and analyzing the online attention and impact of scholarly research outputs. It collects data from various online sources, including social media platforms, news outlets, policy documents, blogs, reference managers, and more. 

Note: EdUHK library does not have an institutional subscription.

Altmetric Donut:

The Altmetric Donut is a visual representation of the attention and engagement that a research output received online. It is a circular graphic that displays various colours and segments, each representing a different source of online activity related to the research output.

An Example of Altmetric Scores in EdUHK Research Repository:

From EdUHK Research Repository, Altmetric data is available for research outputs. Below is an example of an article with Altmetric data: 

Altmetrics are also available on each Scopus document detail page through PlumX. PlumX provides additional insights into research impact and visibility beyond traditional citations. It categorizes them into Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media and Citations.

  • Usage:  clicks, downloads, views, library holdings, video plays
  • Captures: bookmarks, favourites, Reference manager saves, watchers
  • Mentions: blog posts, new articles, comments, reviews, Wikipedia links
  • Social Media: links, shares, tweets
  • Citations: citation indexes, patent citation, policy citation, clinical citations

An Example of Implementing PlumX at EdUHK Library: