Altmetrics and societal impact analysis

The shift towards open access, the rise of web based and networked research and acknowledgment of the importance of societal impact of research have in recent years led to the development of alternative metrics. By capturing mentions in social media, blogs, news, policy documents, as well as the number of downloads, online readers and bookmarks, alternative metrics look beyond journal citations to give us more speedy and multifaceted feedback and a glimpse into how these impact broader audiences.

When used together with bibliometrics, altmetrics can provide a more holistic and broad picture of research and societal impact. This is not to say that it should be used without care – metrics in general, and in particular alternative metrics, should be transparent and reproducible in order to be used in evaluations. The University of Groningen Research Impact Services also adheres to these principles – if in doubt, please contact us.

• Tools for alternative metrics