What are alternative metrics?
Today’s challenge focuses on alternative metrics or altmetrics - that is, metrics that track online sources of impact, such as social media mentions, news outlets, blog posts, citation managers, downloads, and more.
Altmetrics can be especially useful for newly published work, early career researchers, and researchers in disciplines that have low citation rates but share their work online. Check out how they might help scholars in the arts & humanities!
Complete today’s challenge!
To complete today’s challenge, follow the below steps.
- Learn the basics of what altmetrics are and how you can use them
- Learn more about why using altmetrics can help show your impact, even if you are in a niche discipline
- Explore the UNLV Libraries Altmetric Explorer database
- To create an account, visit https://www.altmetric.com/explorer and sign in using your UNLV email address
Bonus challenge
Take it a step further and explore other metrics you can use to show impact by visiting the Metrics Toolkit!
Did you know? You can see all kinds of metrics in the toolkit, how and when they should be used, and lots of examples! You can also view a comparison chart of different metrics on the Research Impact guide.