This guide has been retired and replaced.
Please visit the updated guide at https://libguides.unco.edu/journalpublicationoutlets
Article Level Metrics (ALMs) combine traditional scholarly data (usage, citations and captures) with emerging social data sources (altmetrics). This SPARC primer provides an overview of what ALMs are, why they matter, how they complement established utilities, and how they can be used in the tenure and promotion process.
PLOS ALM Reports - this free resource provides article level metrics for any set of PLOS articles as well as a summary and visualization of the data results.
Nature - utilizes Altmetric tools to display quantitative and qualitative data regarding an article’s social and scholarly impact.
Plum Analytics - EBSCO product sold to institutions providing metrics in 5 separate types: Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media, and Citations.
Altmetrics is the study and use of non-traditional scholarly impact measures that are based on activity in web-based environments.
Altmetric - subscription service that monitors social media sites, newspapers, government policy documents and other sources for mentions of scholarly articles and brings together to compile article level metrics.
ImpactStory - provides scientists the means to explore and share the diverse impacts of all their research products—from traditional ones like journal articles, to emerging products like blog posts, datasets, and software. This non-profit organization is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Use the “Cited Reference Search” feature in the ISI Web of Science database. Web of Science includes Arts & Humanities Citation Index (2004-present), Science Citation Index Expanded (1999-present), and Social Sciences Citation Index (1965-present). It offers bibliographic citations and cited references from a broad range of disciplines, and is useful as a citation analysis tool.
What if your publication is not contained in the Web of Science? Many databases have a citation counting/linking feature that lists only those citing articles available in the same database. Look for the “cited by” or “times cited in this database” hyperlink attached to the articles abstracted in your discipline’s indexing/abstracting database.
Google Scholar Citations - this free resource provides a simple way for scholars to keep track of citations to their articles. In creating a profile, authors will see who is citing their articles, a graph of citations over time, and a computation of several citation metrics.
To date, there are really only three services whose primary aim is to deliver comprehensive research impact metrics: Impactstory, Altmetric.com, and PlumX. Here, we offer a side-by-side comparision* of each services' features, intended audience, data sources, and more.
|
Impactstory |
Altmetric.com |
PlumX |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Example profiles & reports: | example | example | example |
| Metrics for: | |||
| Researchers | x | x(a) | x(a) |
| Research groups | x | x | |
| Departments | x | x | |
| Institutions | x | x | |
| Journals | x | ||
| Institutional Repositories | x | x | |
| Digital Libraries | x | x | |
| Measures impacts of: | |||
| Journal articles | x | x | x |
| Software | x | x(b) | x |
| Data | x | x(b) | x |
| Posters | x | x(b) | x |
| Slide decks | x | x(b) | x |
| Videos | x | x(b) | x |
| Peer reviews | x | ||
| Books | x | x | |
| Patents | x | ||
| Data includes**: | |||
| Scopus citations | x | x | |
| PubMed citations | x | x | |
| CrossRef citations | x | ||
| Blog posts | x | x | x |
| Policy documents | x | ||
| Mainstream media mentions | x | ||
| Twitter metrics | x | x | x |
| GitHub metrics | x | x | |
| Sourceforge metrics | x | ||
| Mendeley metrics | x | x | x |
| Vimeo/Youtube metrics | x | x | x |
| Figshare metrics | x | x | |
| Repository views & downloads | x | x | |
| FULL LIST OF METRICS | see here | see here | see here |
| Contextual information: | |||
| Location of mention, bookmark, etc. | x | x | |
| Percentiles | x | x | |
| Underlying qualitative data | x | x | x(c) |
| Features: | |||
| Data download | x(c) | x(a) | x(a,c) |
| API | x(c) | x(c) | x(a) |
| Embeddable in other sites | x(c) | x(a) | |
| Open data | x(c) | ||
| Open source | x |
(a) Only available as part of an institutional subscription package.
(b) Able to track if permanent identifiers such as DOIs are used.
(c) With limitations.
* We loosely based this grid on Utrect University Library's excellent comparison page of traditional and altmetrics services.
** Not comprehensive. For full list of metrics, see links at end of section. Last updated January 2015.
Courtesy of Impactstory Ultimate Guide to Altmetrics (Librarian's Edition)