Altmetrics for Information Professionals

Altmetrics for Information Professionals

Released September 2015
Publisher(s): Chandos Publishing
ISBN: 9780081002773

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Book description

The goal of any research assessment is to evaluate the value or quality of the research in comparison to other research. As quality is highly subjective and difficult to measure, citations are used as a proxy. Citations are an important part of scholarly communication and a significant component of research evaluation, with the assumption being that highly cited work has influenced the work of many other researchers and hence it is more valuable. Recently we have seen new online data sources being researched for this purpose and disruptive ideas with the power to change research assessment, and perhaps even science as a whole, have been born. Altmetrics is the new research area that investigates the potential of these new data source as indicators of the impact that research has made on the scientific community and beyond, and thus possibly also as indicators of the societal impact of research. This book will present some of these new data sources, findings from earlier altmetrics research, and the disruptive ideas that may radically change scholarly communication.



  • Presents some of the key ideas and innovations in earlier research that have been driving the evolution from bibliometrics to webometrics, and with the advent of social media to altmetrics
  • Discusses the shortcomings and pitfalls of bibliometrics in research evaluation and the potential of altmetrics to overcome some of these shortcomings
    • Presents some of the most important data sources of altmetrics, the aggregators, and the different stakeholders
    • Reviews current research about altmetrics and discusses possible future trends
    • Presents a way to measure and aggregate altmetrics according to the level of impact or type of impact they represent

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. About the Author
  7. Introduction
    1. Altmetrics
    2. Outline of this book
  8. 1: The Past
    1. Abstract
    2. 1 Introduction
    3. 2 Scholarly Communication
    4. 3 Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, and Informetrics
    5. 3.1 Bibliometric laws
    6. 3.2 Co-word analysis
    7. 3.3 Bibliometric analysis
    8. 3.4 Citing behavior
    9. 3.5 Citation-based research evaluation
    10. 3.6 The interest in societal impact of research
    11. 4 Webometrics
    12. 4.1 The hyperlink
    13. 4.2 Webometric research
    14. 5 Social Media
    15. 5.1 Big data
    16. 5.2 Analyzing social media
    17. 5.3 Key performance indicators
    18. 6 Conclusions
  9. 2: The Present
    1. Abstract
    2. 7 Introduction
    3. 8 Scholarly Communication and Other Scholarly Activities in Social Media
    4. 8.1 New research ideas
    5. 8.2 Data collection
    6. 8.3 Analyzing the data
    7. 8.4 Disseminating research products
    8. 8.5 How do researchers use the web for scholarly communication?
    9. 9 The Potential and Critique of Altmetrics
    10. 9.1 The potential of altmetrics
    11. 9.2 The critique
    12. 10 The Altmetrics
    13. 10.1 Impact
    14. 10.2 Data sources of altmetrics
    15. 10.3 Service providers
    16. 11 Stakeholders
    17. 11.1 Researchers
    18. 11.2 Universities
    19. 11.3 Libraries
    20. 11.4 Publishers
    21. 11.5 Funders
    22. 11.6 The general public
    23. 12 Conclusions
  10. 3: The Future
    1. Abstract
    2. 13 Introduction
    3. 14 Meaning and Validity of Altmetrics
    4. 14.1 Creating altmetrics
    5. 14.2 Detecting altmetrics
    6. 14.3 Measuring reach
    7. 14.4 Measuring impact
    8. 15 Pushing the Envelope
    9. 16 Concerns for the Future
    10. 16.1 Lack of standards
    11. 16.2 Gaming altmetrics
    12. 17 Future Research
    13. 18 Conclusions
  11. References
  12. Index

Product information

  • Title: Altmetrics for Information Professionals
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2015
  • Publisher(s): Chandos Publishing
  • ISBN: 9780081002773