(10 February 2015) What are altmetrics? Altmetric (the company) defines them as alternative metrics, or indicators of impact and engagement that extend far beyond traditional methods of influence measurement. Whereas to date academics and those involved in scholarly communication have looked primarily to impact factors and citation counts to assess the success of a piece of research, altmetrics provide a much more granular level of insight – both at the research output level and, crucially, beyond the academic sphere.
The very detailed description of altmetrics including disambiguation, monitoring, showcasing impact, altmetrics for discovery and much more, is on the altmetric website.
