Scholastica and Altmetric today release a new free-to-download eBook resource: The Evolution of Impact Indicators: From bibliometrics to altmetrics.
As technology surfaces more opportunities to gauge the reach and influence of scholarly research than ever before, research impact remains in a constant state of evolution. Whether you’re a researcher, a member of an academic journal, or both you’re likely wondering - how will changes in the way we gauge the impact of research impact me?
In a new free ebook resource titled The Evolution of Impact Indicators: From bibliometrics to altmetrics, Scholastica and Altmetric offer some answers to this question and insights into the current state of research impact and the rise of alternative metrics.
The ebook explores challenges inherent in gauging research by citation-based metrics alone, which can take a long time to accrue, limit the scope of research impact to academia, and generally do not account for alternative research outputs. Additionally, the ebook offers a breakdown of the benefits of altmetrics, as well as real-life use cases of journals and scholars combining altmetrics and bibliometrics to get a broader view of their research impact.
In this ebook you’ll discover:
- The strengths and limitations of bibliometric impact indicators
- Altmetrics use cases and common misconceptions
- How journals and scholars can benefit from tracking altmetrics in addition to bibliometrics
- Case studies and steps to get started tracking altmetrics for journals and researchers
As funding bodies increasingly look to researchers to publish Open Access and to prove that their publications are reaching a wide audience, altmetrics make it possible to tell a fuller story of scholarly impact. These alternative impact indicators present the opportunity to see how research is having an impact beyond citations, including in the news, social media, and public policy documents. In this way altmetrics can help scholars and journals offer a more holistic picture of how their research is being used and shared, and gather insights to improve the reach and reception of later publications. This ebook will give you a comprehensive understanding of alternative metrics and help you to apply a combination of altmetrics and bibliometrics to research assessments on the journal, article, and scholar level.
