Altmetrics are metrics and qualitative data about the online attention
received by research outputs. With over 49 million mentions about research
collected by data provider Altmetric.com (14 million mentions from 2016
alone), there is a wealth of fascinating information to analyse. Over the
past 5 years, the awareness and usage of altmetrics experienced a meteoric
rise amongst the scholarly community, with publishers being some of the
earliest adopters. Now, universities, funders, and even pharmaceutical
companies are taking an interest. But the core of altmetrics are the
researchers, who act as both recipients and producers of online attention
that gets captured. So how can researchers manage the narratives
surrounding their work, watch out for media spin, and ensure that they get
credit where it’s due? Altmetrics present an opportunity for researchers to
really understand the audiences they are reaching, and find new ways for
making their voices heard.
