v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack EStablev2026.2

Altmetrics

A family of indicators that capture attention to and engagement with research outputs across non-traditional sources such as social media, news outlets, policy documents, blogs, Wikipedia and reference managers.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
An impact case study uses altmetric evidence (policy citations, news mentions) alongside citations.
Is an instance
A repository displays altmetric badges to support transparent attention reporting.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
Ranking researchers solely by altmetric scores in a promotion process.
Not an instance
Treating tweet counts as a proxy for research quality.

Editorial commentary

The term 'altmetrics' was coined in the 2010 'altmetrics manifesto' by Priem, Taraborelli, Groth and Neylon. Providers (Altmetric.com, PlumX, Impactstory and others) aggregate signals at the article level rather than the journal level. Altmetrics complement citation-based metrics by surfacing engagement that may precede or never appear as citations. Methodological cautions apply: signals can be gamed, are platform-dependent and reflect attention rather than quality; coverage is uneven across disciplines, languages and geographies. Used responsibly, altmetrics support case-study narratives and impact tracking.

References

Priem J, Taraborelli D, Groth P, Neylon C. 'Altmetrics: A manifesto', 2010 (altmetrics.org). Sugimoto C et al. 'Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics' JASIST 2017.

Also known as

Alternative metrics · Article-level attention metrics

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Altmetrics"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/altmetrics" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "Altmetrics",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/altmetrics",
  "description": "A family of indicators that capture attention to and engagement with research outputs across non-traditional sources such as social media, news outlets, policy documents, blogs, Wikipedia and reference managers.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/responsible-research-assessment/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/altmetrics",
  "sameAs": [
    "Alternative metrics",
    "Article-level attention metrics"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

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