Altmetric Blog

Learning more about altmetrics: essential reads This spring has gotten off to a great start with lots of excellent altmetrics-related reading material. First, there was the special section on altmetrics in the April/May Bulletin of the ASIS&T (which we also contributed to). Then, last week, a new community resource was published online by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). Authored by Greg Tananbaum, the new SPARC Primer on Article-Level Metrics is a clear and comprehensive resource for anyone who’s looking to … Read More

Digital patient and clinician cultures Have you ever Googled a medical symptom? Posted in an online forum before visiting your general practitioner? Used social media to voice an opinion about a healthcare provider or speak about your personal experiences? For many people, turning to the Internet (especially social media) has become a natural way to seek quick answers and discuss medical matters, and the increasing reliance on “Dr. Google” has altered the way that people engage with clinicians. In addition to changes in Internet usage and communication patterns within patient groups, a large number of clinicians have developed their own … Read More

This week, the new Video tab on Altmetric details pages went live. Now that Altmetric is collecting mentions of articles from YouTube, it seems fitting to mark the occasion by devoting this Interactions post to the topic of videos in research. For a great many scientific disciplines, it can make a lot of sense to film things; for instance, experimental procedures and observations are often easier to understand by watching a video than by reading text. Videos can also appeal to broader audiences by helping to convey scientific concepts in a … Read More

Altmetric now collects paper mentions from YouTube videos Up until now, Altmetric has focused on collecting mentions from text and images. Today, we’d like to announce that we’ve begun collecting mentions of papers from YouTube videos. These mentions are now displayed in the new “Videos” tab on article details pages, and are also indicated in green on the Altmetric donut. To see some YouTube mentions, navigate to the Videos tab on this example details page (also see the screenshot below).   How does the new YouTube support work? In order … Read More

Who loves pandas? Over the past month, Canadian news media outlets have been buzzing about 2 giant pandas from Chongqing Zoo in China, who finally arrived last Monday at the Toronto Zoo. Of course, the pandas have not only been enthusiastically promoted online by news outlets, but also in panda-themed paraphernalia, the Toronto Zoo’s Harlem Shake video, and photographic tweets about the panda shipment by FedEx Canada … Read More

Altmetrics: What, Why and Where? Yesterday, 7 essays about altmetrics were published as part of a special section in the new April/May 2013 issue of the Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology (PDF version). This special section, entitled “Altmetrics: What, Why and Where?” was guest edited by Heather Piwowar of ImpactStory, and features comprehensive discussions of altmetrics from many unique perspectives. Heather’s introduction set the stage for the issue, providing useful background information about the growing field of altmetrics. The articles in the special section explored various … Read More