Database info

Altmetric is one of the platforms that gathers ‘altmetrics’: a new type of metrics that aims to capture the societal impact of research output, as opposed to traditional metrics such as citation counts. As altmetrics are changeful and never fully captured by any database, we recommend to refrain from a focus on the numbers. It can be a valuable source to identify who is building upon your work commercially and politically, and to explore the sentiment of the general public.
Altmetric provides free data under certain restrictions. It also provides a paid platform called the Explorer for Institutions (EFI). This Altmetric Explorer allows the user to browse data by author, group, or department. As of July 2020, the UM has a one-year pilot license for the Altmetric Explorer, which can be accessed using your institutional e-mail address and password. For more information on the outputs and sources that Altmetric tracks, please visit the Altmetric support guide .

When using Altmetric data for evaluation purposes be cautious as the quantitative indicators are meant to support qualitative, expert assessment and should not be used in isolation (see: Social media metrics for new research evaluation  and The Leiden manifesto for research metrics ).

For any guidance on how to use Altmetric responsibly, please contact the Research Intelligence Team (research-i@maastrichtuniversity.nl).

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