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Open Access Week 2013: Altmetrics

This guide describes the U of M Libraries' plans for Open Access Week 2013 and provides resources for OA topics. Check here periodically for new developments.

What is altmetrics?

n. Tools used to assess the impact of scholarly articles based on alternative online measures such as bookmarks, links, blog posts, and tweets. Also: alt-metrics. [Alternative + metrics.]

Quote: Luckily, there is a growing movement within the scientific establishment to better measure and reward all the different ways that people contribute to the messy and complex process of scientific progress. This movement has begun to gather loosely around the banner of "altmetrics," which was born out of a simple recognition: Many of the traditional measurements are too slow or simplistic to keep pace with today's internet-age science.

—Samuel Arbesman, "New ways to measure science," Wired Science, January 9, 2012 

Further Readings

altmetrics: a manifesto by Jason Priem, et al

"No one can read everything.  We rely on filters to make sense of the scholarly literature, but the narrow, traditional filters are being swamped. However, the growth of new, online scholarly tools allows us to make new filters; these altmetrics reflect the broad, rapid impact of scholarship in this burgeoning ecosystem. We call for more tools and research based on altmetrics."

The Altmetrics Collection from PLOS One

PLoS Metrics