Altmetrics offers an alternative to the traditional ways of measuring the impact of a scholar's work. In particular, proponents of altmetrics argue that to measure a researcher's influence it is important to account for his/her work's circulation across the social Web. For example, an article may be blogged about, talked about on Twitter, make an appearance on YouTube, or be repeatedly bookmarked.
Altmetric, a London--based company, published 2020 Top 100, a list of academic papers that garnered the most attention online, as captured by altmetrics.
Since their introduction, altmetrics have been receiving plenty of attention. The following is a list of recent articles and blog posts about altmetrics.
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) maintains an altmetrics collection.
The Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece about altmetrics in June of 2013.
Nick Scott's critique of altmetrics on the London School of Economics and Political Science blog raises a few good points about their limitations.
To learn more about altmetrics, please visit read a manifesto that explains why traditional measurements no longer suffice to establish scholarly work's influence and impact.
The June 2013 issue of College & Research Libraries News features an overview of the concept.
Altmetrics.org also maintains a list of media coverage this emerging concept has been receiving. To read what others have written about altmetrics, please click here.
And to read about a recent project here at CUNY, see this article.
To track your own work, you may want to sign up with a number of different services that will allow you to prepare reports using altmetric data such as Altmetric, ImpactStory and PlumAnalytics. Several library databases now include altmetrics, such as Wiley Online Library and EBSCO databases.