Altmetric for media and information literacy in the digital age

For the 2023 Global Media and Information Literacy Week (24 to 31 Oct) the focus was on the importance of digital spaces and the aim was to strengthen the “multilateral cooperation with digital platforms and other stakeholders in integrating media and information literacy into policies, operations, and products.” This underscores the importance of developing new initiatives and reinforcing existing ones to advance media and information literacy in digital spaces. So, how does Altmetric fit in within the context of media and information literacy? One main reason Altmetric was developed was to respond to the need of measuring research influence in a rapidly-evolving digital space that included social media, blogs, wikis and more. While the now well-recognized Altmetric donut does show the amount of attention in various digital settings, it is becoming increasingly clear that digging deeper into Altmetric data can uncover a plethora of important information that was previously difficult, if not impossible, to access.

Altmetric for combating misinformation

While the digital spaces have removed several barriers to information access, it has also opened the floodgates of misinformation and fake news.  As early as 2013, the World Economic Forum cited the growth of misinformation and disinformation as a global risk, especially in high-stakes and volatile situations, where false information or inaccurately presented imagery can cause damage before it is possible to communicate accurate information. In this milieu, it becomes important for researchers, educators and students alike to become critical consumers of information, and Altmetric can be a powerful tool to aid this process. ‘Teaching Undergraduates to Collate and Evaluate News Sources with Altmetrics,’ is a chapter in a recently published book that delves into how to evaluate information and recognize fake news. The authors write that altmetrics can be an important tool to understand the context surrounding a resource, which in turn can help a student make a more critical and accurate evaluation. “Instructors and librarians could inadvertently teach altmetrics as a scoring tool to gauge the importance of research to the public. Arguably, on the surface, this is what altmetrics does, but beneath that surface lies the metaphorical iceberg of the complex engagement with research and all its layers of context,” they write.

Another example is that of two recent studies, which showed that as research ecosystems and the means of information dissemination continue to evolve rapidly, tools such as the Altmetric Attention Score have the potential to find versatile uses. The authors write that Altmetric can find uses from tracking attention within and outside academic settings and assessing academic impact to analyzing scientific misinformation and possibly more.  The papers Investigating Scientific Misinformation Using Different Modes of Learning (a conference paper presented at the Proceedings of the Workshop on Scientific Document Understanding, AAAI Press, 2023) and Evolution of retracted publications in the medical sciences: Citations analysis, bibliometrics, and altmetrics trends published in Accountability in Research, looked into how the data behind the Altmetric Attention Score can be used to analyze scientific misinformation. Both papers examined the scores for retracted publications. The blog article An Altmetric lens on retractions and misinformation has more in-depth information.

Altmetric for gleaning information in medical affairs 

Until recently, medical affairs professionals might have struggled to answer questions such as “How can I explain to my managers the full reach of the articles I write, beyond counting citations?”Or “Is it possible to know what patients and doctors are saying about the research I publish for my company?” The advent of Altmetric has made it possible to unveil data that answers exactly these kinds of questions. A white paper published by Altmetric and IMPRINT Science shows how Altmetric can provide invaluable digital tools for medical affairs professionals to operate in a world of information overload and rapidly-evolving expectations that come from increasing information accessibility. Examples in the white paper illustrate how Altmetric data can be used to find unique key opinion leaders (KOLs), digital opinion leaders (DOLs), illuminate the growth of therapeutic areas, and test assumptions about the value of industry sponsorship for research. Used alongside citation counts and social media metrics such as follower counts, hashtag reach, and other measures of social engagement for a brand or topic, altmetrics are an invaluable source of insights for companies seeking to publish strategically and be more impactful.

Altmetric for research evaluation

Although Altmetric was originally designed for measuring ‘quantity of attention’, in a recent study, scientists explored the possibility of evaluating research by looking into the quality and context of altmetrics data. Titled “Evaluative altmetrics: is there evidence for its application to research evaluation?,”  the study introduces an approach that applies altmetrics to identify unique audiences, local attention, engagement metrics, and mentions and the profile of the actors involved in the mentions. The study illustrated in a practical way how indicators can be combined with unique sources of information to allow contextualization of attention. The study authors propose the creation of dashboards at both publication and author levels, offering comprehensive insights into measured attention while segmenting different instances of social engagement. According to the team, the proposed framework can be effectively employed by institutions and evaluation agencies for informed decision-making.

Digital spaces have evolved rapidly, and perhaps it might not be an exaggeration to state that changes happen almost real-time, and without doubt this directly impacts media and information literacy. Tools such as Altmetric that allow looking at layers of information and social engagement data can be invaluable tools to ensure media and information literacy for a wide spectrum of users ranging from students and researchers to medical affairs professionals. Having a good handle on altmetrics could translate to being better equipped to navigate the complex landscape of digital information, ultimately contributing to a more informed and literate global community.

For more information about how to use Altmetric, contact the Altmetric team.