Researcher Data Access Program
Free access to Altmetric data to study how research is shared and communicated online
Free access for university researchers
- Altmetric data is available free of charge to university-affiliated scientometrics researchers studying relevant topics
- Six months’ access available for one-off research projects.
- Individual support from Altmetric data scientists provided via email and in monthly Office Hours
- Special consideration for International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics members
Available data formats
Type | Conditions of use | What can I do with it? |
Altmetric Explorer |
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Altmetric Details Page API – Counts Only |
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Altmetric Details Page API – Full Access |
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What does the data include?
Altmetric tracks detailed metrics and mentions for discussions of research outputs (e.g. datasets, journal articles, monographs) on the Web. We capture all mentions where a research output with a compatible persistent identifier and adequate metadata has been linked to in any of the sources we track. The bulk of our data contains mentions from 2011 onward. For more details on our data collection practices, please visit our knowledge base.
What doesn’t the data include?
Our data does not include social media topics and hashtags unless they are associated with discrete research outputs. We also do not track downloads and pageviews, due to concerns over data reliability.
Request access
To apply for free Altmetric access, please tell us about your research. We’ll review your application (with an aim to respond within 10 business days) and let you know if Altmetric would be a good fit to answer your research questions.
Resources
All researchers
- New to analyzing Altmetric data? Check out Using Altmetric data for altmetrics research to understand your options
- Ready to publish your Altmetric-related study? Read this guide on How to cite and describe Altmetric data in publications
- Need funding to complete your altmetrics-related research? Check out the Altmetric annual research grant, which awards up to $2,000 each spring.
Explorer users
- Researchers using Explorer for their data retrieval should review this Introduction to using Altmetric Explorer
- Explorer users can query up to 25,000 identifiers at once using Advanced Search in Altmetric Explorer
API and database snapshot users
- API users and database snapshot users should check out the Altmetric Details Page API documentation and Full Access API example to see which fields are available for retrieval and analysis
- Researchers have developed some nice packages for using the Altmetric Details Page API, including rAltmetric (R), PyAltmetric (Python), and altmetric (Ruby). Altmetric API keys are required to work with these packages. Note that these packages are not developed nor maintained by Altmetric; please contact the packages’ respective owners for more information or to report bugs.
Research on Altmetric data
To find the latest research on altmetrics, visit our sister company, Dimensions. Here are some of our favorite studies.
Title | Journal | Year | Authors | DOI | Altmetric Attention Score | Times cited | FCR |
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Academic information on Twitter: A user survey | PLoS ONE | 2018 | Mohammadi, Ehsan; Thelwall, Mike; Kwasny, Mary; Holmes, Kristi L. | 10.1371/journal.pone.0197265 | 336 | 2 | 0 |
Conservation Research Is Not Happening Where It Is Most Needed | PLoS Biology | 2016 | Wilson, Kerrie A.; Auerbach, Nancy A.; Sam, Katerina; Magini, Ariana G.; St. L. Moss, Alexander; Langhans, Simone D.; Budiharta, Sugeng; Terzano, Dilva; Meijaard, Erik | 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002413 | 287 | 29 | 21.77 |
Tracking the digital footprints to scholarly articles from social media | Scientometrics | 2016 | Wang, Xianwen; Fang, Zhichao; Guo, Xinhui | 10.1007/s11192-016-2086-z | 90 | 4 | 2.9 |
Do “altmetrics” correlate with citations? Extensive comparison of altmetric indicators with citations from a multidisciplinary perspective | Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology | 2015 | Costas, Rodrigo; Zahedi, Zohreh; Wouters, Paul | 10.1002/asi.23309 | 141 | 193 | 104.24 |
Characterizing Social Media Metrics of Scholarly Papers: The Effect of Document Properties and Collaboration Patterns | PLoS ONE | 2015 | Haustein, Stefanie; Costas, Rodrigo; Larivière, Vincent | 10.1371/journal.pone.0120495 | 140 | 97 | 52.39 |
Tweeting biomedicine: An analysis of tweets and citations in the biomedical literature | Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology | 2014 | Haustein, Stefanie; Peters, Isabella; Sugimoto, Cassidy R.; Thelwall, Mike; Larivière, Vincent | 10.1002/asi.23101 | 272 | 140 | 58.74 |
Study points to press releases as sources of hype | Nature | 2014 | Woolston, Chris | 10.1038/nature.2014.16551 | 108 | 2 | 0 |
How well developed are altmetrics? A cross-disciplinary analysis of the presence of ‘alternative metrics’ in scientific publications | Scientometrics | 2014 | Zahedi, Zohreh; Costas, Rodrigo; Wouters, Paul | 10.1007/s11192-014-1264-0 | 68 | 156 | 65.46 |
An open investigation of the reproducibility of cancer biology research | eLife | 2014 | Errington, Timothy M; Iorns, Elizabeth; Gunn, William; Tan, Fraser Elisabeth; Lomax, Joelle; Nosek, Brian A | 10.7554/elife.04333 | 98 | 116 | 16.52 |
Using altmetrics for assessing research impact in the humanities | Scientometrics | 2014 | Hammarfelt, Björn | 10.1007/s11192-014-1261-3 | 6 | 66 | 126.16 |