Altmetrics
What are altmetrics?
Altmetrics (alternative metrics) are indicators that show the attention an article receives outside traditional citation-based measures. They track online engagement and discussion surrounding research outputs across a wide range of sources, including:
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policy documents
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news outlets
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blogs
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social media (e.g., X/Twitter, Facebook)
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Wikipedia
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Faculty Opinions
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published peer reviews
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videos
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patents
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Q&A platforms (e.g., Stack Overflow)
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Reddit
Altmetrics complement citation metrics by helping authors understand the broader societal, clinical, and public visibility of their research.
Altmetric in Polymers in Medicine
Polymers in Medicine embeds Altmetric Badges on published articles to allow authors to track the online attention received by their work.
Using unique identifiers (e.g., DOIs), Altmetric collects article-level data and captures online mentions that link to the article landing page. These mentions are aggregated into:
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the Altmetric Attention Score, and
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the Altmetric Badge.
The Altmetric Badge is displayed at the top of each article page. Clicking the badge opens the Altmetric Details Page, where authors can explore mentions of their work across social media, blogs, mass media outlets, and other sources.
(You may also provide a short instructional video link here.)
Why use Altmetric?
Altmetrics can be useful for authors who wish to:
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build their online presence,
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demonstrate the broader impact of their work, and
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communicate research significance to grant panels, evaluation committees, and stakeholders.
Altmetric data may help authors to:
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document research dissemination in CVs, grant applications, or reports,
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identify who is discussing the research and find potential collaborators,
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monitor engagement trends in a given field,
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manage online reputation and respond to public discussion when appropriate.
More information: