Plum Analytics and Altmetrics: In The News

We are amazed at how quickly altmetrics has turned from a “fringe” topic to one that is on everyone’s mind.  This is evidenced by how many people are writing and talking about it just in the past month alone.  We want to share some of the most interesting of these articles so you can keep up with this emerging area.

Are Alternative Metrics Still Alternative?

Mike Buschman and Andrea Michalek of Plum Analytics wrote this article for the ASIS&T Bulletin published in the April/May 2013 issue.

This article starts with the premise that the academic world needs new metrics and what these new metrics are.  It makes the case that citations are a very small percentage of how an article is used and that other uses such as downloads and mentions are important to evaluate both research and researcher.  Read about how using altmetrics for grant applications could be really important among other insights.

Download the PDF…

This article was a part of the Special Section on “Altmetrics: What, Why and Where?”  If you’re looking for a full view of altmetrics, and the different voice in the conversation, it is worth the read.

Download the PDF of the full issue…

Other Articles

Altmetrics and Open Access: A Measure of Public Interest

Article by Pat Loria of the Australian Open Access Support Group.  An interesting article linking the importance of Altmetrics to supporting open access efforts.

Article-Level Metrics – A SPARC Primer

Article by Greg Tananbaum.  As the title suggests, this is a primer on the topic of article-level metrics, of which altmetrics is a part.

Track Research Impact, Use Altmetrics!

Article by Astrid Pellieux in Science.  Here is the introduction:

“Measuring the impact of research is very important to judge a scientific work. Since years, traditional metrics, as citation metrics, provide information about the significance of a research work. However, the effectiveness of those indicators are now questioned. Hence, alternative metrics called altmetrics are now developing. Those new metrics are based on the social web and gather data from online platforms.”

Read more to discover more insight into altmetrics and Plum Analytics.

A Vision For A Better Future – Using New Tools Of Openness And Transparency To Improve The Scientific Process

By Pete Blinfield and Jason Hoyt in Stephen Curry’s Reciprocal Space.

A quote:

“The academic community tends to view peer reviewed journal articles as the most important thing to considered when evaluating a contribution, or an individual. But is this actually the best we can manage? Or can we apply modern tools and more enlightened thinking to come up with new and improved ways to measure a contribution to the scientific enterprise?”

The authors go on to describe making the whole science process more open to make for better science.

Presentations

#altmetrics 101 and why you need to know about them

This is a slide presentation by Michelle Dalton, University of Limerick.  This presentation is a great introduction to altmetrics and the tools.

Challenging, cajoling and rewarding the community for their contributions to online chemistry

This is a slide presentation by Antony Williams at ACS in New Orleans.  It is an interesting presentation for the Chemistry community on the importance of contributions outside of the “normal” journal article in a prestigious journal.  The premise is also interesting viewing for those outside the chemistry community.

If you see altmetrics or Plum in the news, let us know.