Altmetrics: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Headed Next? Lily Troia, Engagement Manager, Altmetric Stacy Konkiel, Director of Education and Research, Altmetric

What we covered Existing landscape of research impact evaluation What altmetrics are (and how you find them) What altmetrics can do (thinking beyond the pdf) Advocating for altmetrics engagement (exercises, brainstorming, activities, oh my!) Almetrics: more than just post-pub evaluation The future . . .

What does “impact” mean at your organization? CC-BY HuoangP / Flickr

Discussion: Impact means many things to different communities, often within a single organization Organizations (and researchers) are being asked more and more to account for impact Metrics = impact Can we actually measure impact? How can shift scholarly culture towards more qualitative evaluation of research outputs?

Indicators, attention . . . maybe influence, and sometimes downstream impact Many purposes for tracking and assessing where (and among whom) research is being discussed A richer picture of research sharing and dissemination benefits all participants in the research lifecycle; and thus, Altmetrics serve as a complement to citation-based metrics and web analytics While attention should not be conflated with quality, it can provide indicators of potential influence and impact Regardless of an org or individual’s position/participation in the social web, it behooves those involved in the research process to be aware of conversations happening around our (or related) research)

How are researchers & institutions using Altmetric? Research and evaluation services - Identify & track influential research; assess impact & reach Grants and reporting - Target new grants & grantees; demonstrate value to stakeholders Communications and reputation management - Track press/social media; connect to opinion leaders Marketing and promotion - Highlight vital findings; benchmark campaigns and outreach Collaboration and partnerships - Discover disciplinary intersections & collaborative opportunities

Context is key Dig into altmetrics data to uncover rich narratives and timely conversations Consider demographic, geographic, and cultural differences Getting away from the numbers All impact is not good impact

Strategies for success Align with your organizational mission and values Keep the researcher at the center of the conversation Consider each audience Diversify communication efforts Be proactive and think beyond “assessment” Incorporate into regular workflows and reporting Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships

Thanks! Stay in touch: lily@altmetric.com | @lilytroia Altmetric.com | @altmetric