Thousands of conversations about research take place online every day. Altmetric tracks and monitors a range of online sources for published research in social media, news, policy and more. The tool aggregates this activity to help you map, learn from and report on the attention your research receives.
As a member of Ghent University, you are granted free access to this tool and can browse individual authors or academic departments within the university. At Ghent University, the Altmetric Explorer is linked to the Academic Bibliography (Biblio). You can also use the full Altmetric database to track work from other organisations. The Explorer allows simple and advanced searches and provides a possibility to save and automatically send reports.
Altmetric provides ‘altmetrics’ or alternative metrics. They can give an indication of the reach and significance of the research, the effectiveness of the communication strategy, the stakeholders of your research. In that respect, they provide a piece of the puzzle for your impact strategy (but are not themselves impact or often not evidence of impact). They should be used with equal care and nuance as for all metrics and indicators (cf Ghent University’s policy on the responsible assessment of research).
More information on Altmetric and how to access and use the tool via the dedicated intranet webpage.