Research Analytics: Altmetrics - Identifying Social Media Impact

Altmetric.com is a platform that tracks and analyzes the online attention and engagement surrounding scholarly research. It collects data from various sources like social media, news outlets, policy documents, and more to provide insights into how research is being discussed and shared.

This platform is particularly useful for academics because it shows the impact of their work beyond traditional citation metrics. Researchers can see if their work is being discussed online, picked up by news organizations, or cited in patents and policy documents. While traditional citations can be slow to accumulate, Altmetrics provides an immediate view of a research piece’s impact. Altmetrics can also demonstrate impact and engagement with the general public as well as scholarly publications and organisations.

The Altmetric Donut is a visual representation of the attention an academic article receives across various platforms, including news outlets, social media, and policy documents. Each color in the donut corresponds to a different type of source, providing a quick overview of the article’s impact and reach. The number in the middle represents 'altmetric attention score'. This is a weighted metric that quantifies the amount of attention a research output has received across various platforms. Rather than quoting the 'attention score' we recommend that you discuss the number of mentions your work have had e.g. retweeted 500 times, mentioned in 50 blogs, cited in 10 newspaper articles. This context is far more informative than the attention score number. 

Altmetrics data can be extremely useful for academics in several ways:

1. Show the Impact of Papers Without Citations: Even if a paper hasn’t yet received traditional citations, Altmetrics can demonstrate that it is being shared, downloaded, and discussed. This provides a more nuanced picture of a paper’s influence.

2. Track Engagement with Various Outputs: Academics produce a wide range of outputs, from traditional papers to datasets, reports, and opinion pieces. Altmetrics allows you to track the impact of all these outputs, not just journal-based papers.

3. Support Grant Proposals and Promotion Cases: Altmetrics can showcase the broader impact of your work, demonstrating influence beyond journal citations. This can be particularly valuable for supporting grant applications and promotion cases.

The University has a subscription to Altmetrics which can be accessed at www.altmetric.com. Click on 'sign in' in the top right hand corner. You will be asked for your University email address and then need to log in via the University's Single Sign On process. 

To Search for Your Altmetrics

1. Login to Altmetrics.
2. Click on the ‘Edit Search’ button at the top of the page.
3. Enter your name in the Verified Author box. (Altmetrics pulls all its name and publication data from PURE, so ensure your PURE profile is up to date).
4. Click on the blue ‘Run Search’ button in the bottom right corner.
5. Alternatively, add your ORCID to the ORCID box. Altmetric will then search for all outputs associated with that ORCID.

To Search for a Group’s Altmetrics

1. Login to Altmetrics.
2. Click on the ‘Edit Search’ button at the top of the page.
3. Enter the name of the department/University of Bath research group in the Verified Department box.
4. Click on the blue ‘Run Search’ button in the bottom right corner.

To Search for an Individual Paper

1. Login to Altmetrics.
2. Click on the ‘Edit Search’ button at the top of the page.
3. Enter the title of the paper, or its keywords, into the ‘Keywords’ box.
4. Make sure you tick the box ‘Full Altmetric Database’ at the top of the screen. This will search the entire Altmetric database, not just papers listed in PURE.

To Search for Mentions by Funding Grant

1. Login to Altmetrics.
2. Click on the ‘Edit Search’ button at the top of the page.
3. Scroll down to the Grant ID box.
4. Ensure you have ticked the box ‘Full Altmetric Database’ at the top of the screen.
5. Enter your Grant ID number and select the relevant grant from the drop-down list.
6. Click on the blue ‘Run Search’ button in the bottom right corner.

You can also search by a date range, types of output, journal name, funder name etc. 

You can easily view your outputs’ Altmetric scores in PURE. Any output added to PURE with a unique identifier, such as a DOI, will display an ‘Altmetric Donut’ alongside it. By clicking on the donut, you can quickly see the current Altmetrics for that output.

If there is no donut, it means either a unique identifier has not been used in PURE, or Altmetric has not yet identified any online mentions.

Altmetrics provide lots of useful training videos on their YouTube channel. Alternatively contact the Library's Research Analytics team who will be happy to provide training on Altmetrics or help demonstrate the online impact of a department, research team or an individual. Please email us at research-analytics@bath.ac.uk