How to boost your Altmetric score by increasing the visibility of your research

In our busy world, scientists must work harder than ever to ensure their research receives the attention it deserves, writes Alex Zhavoronkov in Forbes. And while there are various ways to boost a paper’s visibility, there is a singular ‘blueprint’ for tracking attention –  the Altmetric Attention Score.

Altmetric tracks the visibility of articles through monitoring social networks including X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook. It also tracks top-tier mainstream media, mainstream science blogs, policy documents, patents, Wikipedia articles, peer review websites, F1000, Syllabi, Stack Exchange sites and Youtube. The score an article receives gives an early indication of its impact and can be a powerful way of attracting wider attention (learn more about how the score is calculated). 

Zhavoronkov writes that the key to boosting a paper’s score is by increasing its visibility and there are several key ways researchers can do this:

Write a press release and distribute to science-focused media

“If your paper is significant, for example, you elucidated a novel disease biology, discovered a new drug, developed a new fancy algorithm, designed a new material, or developed a new application for a quantum computer, it is worthwhile investing some time and resources in writing a press release,” he explains.

Create a blog post

Posts can be longer and more comprehensive than the press release and can be shared with journalists along with the press release. The blog may serve as inspiration for third party news coverage. “Make sure to reference your paper’s DOI and URL.”

Tweet and ask your team members to tweet

“Each post on X gives a quarter of an Altmetric point. If a paper goes viral on X, its Altmetric score can be considerable. Plus, once journalists notice that it went viral, they will be more likely to cover the story, further increasing the score,” explains Zhavoronov. But beware – retweets count less than original tweets and Altmetric will reduce the weight of a tweet where it finds markers that suggest bias or promiscuity – such as a publisher only tweeting their own articles.

Experiment, learn, repeat

“The popularity of a paper depends on many factors. Ones which capture the public imagination or have widespread appeal are of course, much more likely to gain traction online.” Papers published by top-tier institutions and in top journals naturally attract more attention. By experimenting with different approaches and measuring success through Altmetric, scientists can develop new strategies to popularize scientific research and raise its profile. 

For more information, read LSE blog post tips on getting more out of Altmetric or contact the Altmetric team.