Robust ‘Altmetrics’ as a Framework for Measuring Item Usage and Researcher Impact in Institutional Repositories

Abstract

Select academic journal publishers and subject repositories have implemented tools that allow authors to see their “impact” at an article level. These usage indicators, called “altmetrics,” measure article citations, download counts, pageviews, bookmarks on academic social reference manager sites, and mentions on Facebook and Twitter. Some altmetrics have been shown to predict the likelihood of papers receiving more traditional measures of impact such as citations (Eysenbach, 2011), and a growing number of scholars are calling for altmetrics’ recognition as a supplementary measure of an article’s influence (Neylon & Wu, 2009; Priem et al, 2010; Taraborielli, 2008). Should institutional repositories offer altmetrics for the research they hold? If so, which metrics? Which tools are best suited to aid in implementation? What barriers to participation exist for repository managers? Using examples from the research literature, academic publishers, and subject and institutional repositories, we explore these questions."