13.06.2013
Mike Taylor : « The Challenges of Measuring Social Impact Using Altmetrics »
» Abstract
Altmetrics gives us novel ways of detecting the use and consumption of scholarly publishing beyond formal citation, and it is tempting to treat these measurements as proxies for social impact. However, altmetrics is still too shallow and too narrow, and needs to increase its scope and reach before it can make a significant contribution to computing relative values for social impact. Furthermore, in order to go beyond limited comparisons of like-for-like and to become generally useful, computation models must take into account different socio-economic characteristics and legal frameworks. However, much of the necessary work can be borrowed from other fields, and the author concludes that – with certain extensions and added sophistication – altmetrics will be a valuable element in calculating social reach and impact (…) «
