Research assessment is mainly employed to evaluate the quality of research in comparison to other researches. Since quality is somehow difficult to measure; citations have been used and are still being used to measure the impact of research. This is based on the assumption that a highly cited research has influenced the work of other researchers hence being deemed of value. There has been notable shift however over time with research impact being measured not only in scientific terms but considerations for social impact being made as well.

The advent of social media has made a contribution in changing or advancing some aspects of scholarly communication. Researchers have adopted the use of social media e.g. Facebook, blogs, Mendeley e.t.c to share and present their ideas thereby leaving measurable tracesof activities behind. This has resulted in the birth of new methods to measure such tracks.

Altmetrics is the new research area aimed at measuring impact of research considering the social indicators such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Mendeley e.t.c. Altmetrics comes from 'Alternative metrics'.

Altmetrics are metrics and qualitative data that are complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics.

Source: https://www.altmetric.com/about-altmetrics/what-are-altmetrics/

This data can be derived from citations on Wikipedia, discussions on research blogs, bookmarks on reference managers like Mendeley, and mentions on social networks such as Twitter. These are basically alternative metrics to the traditional metrics such as the h-index, CiteScore e.t.c.

Altmetrics are ideal in measuring research impact and reach by tracking their online interactions. They:

• Indicate the number of times the work has been downloaded.
• Indicate those reading it.
• Track to establish if the work made headlines in any news agency.
• Track if there are any other researchers commenting on it.
• Indicate the number of shares on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter e.t.c.

Example of a detailed PlumX metrics

PlumX metrics can be categorised into five categories:

1. Citation Metrics which counts the number of times the publication has been cited by others.

2. Usage Metrics gives an analysis of how many times the publication has be viewed or shared.

3. Capture Metrics keeps track of readers/users as they bookmark, mark as favourite e.t.c. Captures are crucial as they give an indication for future citations.

4. Mention Metrics these include blog posts, comments, reviews, and wikipedia links about your research. These are indications that people are interacting with your research.

5. Social Media Metrics these are the likes, shares, and tweets about research.

   Source: https://plumanalytics.com/learn/about-metrics/