Altmetrics: Measuring the Broader Impact of Scientific Research

Abstract

Measuring the impact of scientific research of individuals and institutions is a necessity and a challenging task for institutions, funding agencies and the government so as to draw a well-informed policy framework and draw pathways for future directions. While peer-review and citation-based bibliometrics indicators have become global means of measuring research output and are playing a critical role in this process. However, citations have been criticized for limiting their scope within academic and neglecting the broader societal impact of research. The Article-level-metrics (ALM) or altmetrics has emerged as an alternative metrics (alternative to bibliometrics) to fill-in the gap and setting a new trend in recent times for measuring the impact of scientific publications and their social outreach on web. Altmetrics is the new metrics for measuring research impact based on the data penetration on the web and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Mendeley and CiteULike, etc. This paper provides an overview on altmetrics, its definitions, its data sources and available tools, merits and demerits, difference between altmetrics and bibliometrics, etc. Lastly, the article outlines possibilities of implementing altmetrics in publications-based services offered by the INFLIBNET Centre.