Elsevier’s multi-dimensional metrics.
At a Glance
| Publisher | Elsevier (PlumX Metrics) |
| Coverage | metrics across five categories — usage, captures, mentions, social media, and citations — surfaced in Scopus and other Elsevier products |
| Access | via Scopus/institutional subscription |
| Free alternative | OpenAlex counts, Altmetric bookmarklet |
| Regional | global. |
Our Take
PlumX is Altmetric’s main rival, distinctive for organizing engagement into five buckets — usage (downloads, views), captures (bookmarks, saves), mentions, social media, and citations — which gives a fuller picture than attention alone, and it’s embedded directly in Scopus. It shares the core caveat that these are engagement signals, not quality measures. Use it, especially within the Elsevier ecosystem, to profile how an output is being used and discussed; interpret the categories rather than any single number.
Power Tips
- Read PlumX’s five categories separately — “captures” (people saving a paper) signals different intent than “social media” mentions
- use it inside Scopus to complement citation counts with usage and capture data when assessing impact.
Alternatives & Complements
Altmetric · Scopus · Dimensions · OpenAlex.
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