Attention data beyond citations.
At a Glance
| Publisher | Altmetric (a Digital Science company) |
| Coverage | online attention for research outputs — news, policy documents, social media, blogs, Wikipedia — summarized as the Altmetric Attention Score |
| Access | freemium (free bookmarklet; paid Explorer and institutional tiers) |
| Regional | global. |
Our Take
Altmetric tracks a different signal from citations — the real-time attention a paper gets in news, policy, and social media — which surfaces societal and public engagement long before citations accrue, and flags when an unreviewed preprint is going viral (a prompt to verify, not celebrate). It measures attention, not quality, so a high score is a starting question, not a verdict. Use it to gauge public and policy engagement and to spot fast-moving work; read the score critically alongside citation-based evidence.
Power Tips
- Use Altmetric to catch policy and news uptake of research early — and treat a spiking score on a preprint as a flag to verify, not endorse (Issue 4)
- read the attention breakdown (who is talking about it) rather than the headline score alone.
Alternatives & Complements
PlumX · Dimensions · Overton · Scite.
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