Research Impact Challenge

How it works: Depending on the product (e.g., Altmetric.com, PlumX), altmetrics are gathered using unique identifiers. These tend to be DOIs (Altmetric.com), but are sometimes ISBNs and URLs (PlumX). Altmetric.com provides free tools to researchers with basic capabilities, while costs are associated with enhanced features. PlumX has costs associated with all features.

• Digital Object Identifer (DOI) Explained 

  The DOI System began in 1997 as a generic framework for managing identification of content over digital networks. Currently, the DOI System provides a technical and social infrastructure for the registration and use of persistent interoperable identifiers (DOI Handbook).
• Locate a DOI for Publications 

  Many publishers are assigning DOIs to journal articles, books, and book chapters, especially larger presses. Go to Crossref and select the "Search Metadata" option to see if there is already a DOI associated with your publication. 
  
  If your publication does not have a DOI, member publishers can assign one through Crossref (ask your publisher if they're a Crossref member and can assign a DOI to your publication). 
  
  Another option that individual researchers can use is figshare. This site allows you to assign a DOI to a variety of digital file outputs as long as you make them publicly available.
  
  If you'd like to track a dataset using a DOI, consider placing your research data in a repository that assigns DOIs. See the Day 3 Challenge for more ideas on repository selection.

DigitalCommons@UMaine Institutional Repository

DigitalCommons@UMaine provides access to the scholarly, educational, and creative works of the University of Maine community. Metrics available in the Digital Commons include download statistics, and an Altmetric.com score (for items with DOIs). See more about Altmetric.com at the bottom of this page. Also included are PlumX metrics, from another alternative metrics company.

IEEE Explore
Click on the article abstract or title, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on "Metrics" to see the Altmetric score on the bottom right of the page, if it's available for that article.

SpringerLink Ebooks​
Search for a book and click on the title to view a snapshot of the publisher's Book Metrics. Click on the metrics graphic to get a fuller picture and description of the book's usage and impact. See where the data are harvested.

Free tools from Altmetric.com that can help you capture and convey your research impact include:

Altmetric.com tracks a range of online sources that capture the social life of a researcher's scholarly activity. Altmetric.com is a commercial product that offers a free bookmarklet and is embedded in a variety of library databases.

• Altmetric Bookmarklet 

  This free browser plugin (available in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) lets you instantly see the Altmetric data for any publication with a DOI or PMID. Click on the donut to view the full details page for each output.
• Altmetric Badges 

  Altmetric badges enable you to showcase the online attention surrounding your research, and it’s free to embed them in your individual profile or publications page. Find the embeddable badge code.
• Altmetric API 

  The Altmetric API is free to use for research purposes. You can use it to query Altmetric.com's entire database, which currently contains attention data for nearly 7 million research outputs.

Potential Advantages:

• Timeliness
• Supports a broader swath of scholarly contributions
• Encourages openness, sharing, and reuse of scholarship 
• Broadens audience, and thus potential impact

Potential Drawbacks:

• Gaming
• Perceptions of “real” impact
• Dynamic nature of social media
• Score comparison

Note: Similar to other metrics, altmetrics does not reveal the quality of a work; that is up to the individual scholar to assess. Quantitative measures are only part of a scholar's impact story.

ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a social networking platform where scholars can share research outputs, ask and answer questions, and identify potential collaborators. The contributions made to ResearchGate (e.g., uploaded publications and/or data, questions you ask and answer), the interactions people have with your work on the site, and the reputation of the people interacting with your work make up your RG score. Additional information on the RG Score can be found here, and on their h-index here.

Impactstory

Impactstory is an open-source, web-based tool you can download from Github that helps scientists explore and share the diverse impacts of all their research products—from traditional ones like journal articles, to emerging products like blog posts, datasets, and software. Alternatively, you can sign up for an account and use the Impactstory platform to create an altmetric researcher profile.

The Metrics Toolkit was launched in January 2018, from "a group of information professionals who are passionate about using the best possible evidence for research evaluation."

The Metrics Toolkit is "a resource built to help researchers and evaluators navigate the ever-changing research metrics landscape.The Metrics Toolkit includes 27 expert-written, time-saving summaries for the most popular research metrics including the Journal Impact Factor and Altmetric Attention Score."

Also included is an app that can recommend discipline-specific metrics based on your specific use cases.