Research Impact Metrics

Alternative metrics are a measure of web-based scholarly interaction. They aim to measure such things as how often research is tweeted, blogged, downloaded or bookmarked.

Their development can be seen as a response to the impact of social networking on the research environment. Use alternative metrics to:

• Demonstrate dissemination of research findings beyond disciplinary boundaries
• Demonstrate media coverage of research of teaching including social media activity
• Demonstrate participation in social impact activities that span disciplines
• Demonstrate sustained evidence of media and community engagement with national and international impact

Alternative metrics can be used to compensate for some of the limitations of traditional research metrics as well as presenting a more well-rounded picture of research impact.

They should be used to supplement traditional metrics. Alternative measures can assist:

• Where citation databases do not provide coverage of a discipline
• In assessing the impact of research outputs that do not attract traditional metrics, such as citations
• Where impact in non-scholarly environments is significant
• In determining how research is being implemented in practice
• In uncovering the influence of very recently published work

See the Altmetrics: a manifesto, posted on altmetrics.org, for further explanation about the development of this approach to measuring scholarly impact.