As the journal impact factor continues to be challenged by academics, many wonder what measures can take its place if it is indeed eradicated. Surely, we will have to continue to provide objective metrics that measure both the productivity and impact of scholars across the disciplines, won’t we? Some have posited that altmetrics (article-level metrics that measure impact across the social web) may be a good replacement for the impact factor; others contend that altmetrics can serve only as a supplement to existing, more traditional measures of research quality.
I have been asked several times by other librarians to compile a recommended reading list for those who wish to learn more about altmetrics. What I’ve created here is by no means comprehensive; instead, it is intended to be a starting point for further investigation into the field. By including several articles about the impact factor, as well as critiques of the use of research metrics and altmetrics to measure scholarship’s quality, I hope to provide a contextualized view into the field. I also include links to three web services (Altmetric.com, ImpactStory, and PLOS Article Level Metrics) that can be used to track altmetrics.
I’ll soon release a reading list scoped specifically for altmetrics used in the context of academic libraries. Stay tuned!
- Altmetric. (2012-Present). Altmetric – We Make Article Level Metrics Easy. Retrieved from http://www.altmetric.com
- ASCB. (2013). San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment. Retrieved from http://am.ascb.org/dora/
- Galligan, F., & Dyas-Correia, S. (2013). Altmetrics: Rethinking the Way We Measure. Serials Review, 39(1), 56–61. doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2013.01.003
- Garfield, E. (2005). The Agony and the Ecstasy — The History and Meaning of the Journal Impact Factor. In International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication (pp. 1–22). Chicago, IL. Retrieved from http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/jifchicago2005.pdf
- ImpactStory. (2011-Present). ImpactStory — Share the full story of your research impact. Retrieved from http://impactstory.org/
- Neylon, C., & Wu, S. (2009). Article-Level Metrics and the Evolution of Scientific Impact. PLoS Biology, 7(11), e1000242. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000242
- Nielsen, M. (2010). The mismeasurement of science. Retrieved from http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/the-mismeasurement-of-science/
- PLOS. (2009-Present). Article Level Metrics. Retrieved from http://article-level-metrics.plos.org/.
- PLOS Medicine Editors. (2006). The impact factor game. It is time to find a better way to assess the scientific literature. PLoS Medicine, 3(6), e291. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030291
- Priem, J., Piwowar, H. A., & Hemminger, B. M. (2012). Altmetrics in the wild: Using social media to explore scholarly impact. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.4745
- Priem, J., Taraborelli, D., Groth, P., & Neylon, C. (2010). Alt-metrics: a manifesto. Retrieved from http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/
- Roemer, R. C., & Borchardt, R. (2012). From bibliometrics to altmetrics. College & Research Libraries News, 73(10), 596–600. Retrieved from http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/10/596.full
- Roemer, R. C., & Borchardt, R. (2013). Institutional Altmetrics and Academic Libraries. Information Standards Quarterly, 25(2). doi:10.3789/isqv25no2.2013.03
- Scholarly Kitchen Editors. (2011-Present). Altmetrics posts on the Scholarly Kitchen Blog. Retrieved from http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/tag/altmetrics/
- Seglen, P. O. (1997). Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. BMJ, 314(7079), 497–497. doi:10.1136/bmj.314.7079.497
- Steele, C., Butler, L., & Kingsley, D. (2006). The publishing imperative: the pervasive influence of publication metrics. Learned Publishing, 19(4), 14. doi:10.1087/095315106778690751
- Taraborelli, D. (2008). Soft peer review: Social software and distributed scientific evaluation. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP ’08). Carry-le-Rouet, France. Retrieved from http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/8279/
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