Altmetric (from Digital Science), is one of the best-known altmetrics providers. Altmetric tracks where published research is mentioned online by following lists of sources, including social media, news sources, government and non-government reports, blogs, Wikipedia, policy documents etc., and text-mines them for links to research.  

To be tracked by Altmetric you need four things:

1. a research output 
2. that has a unique identifier
3. and is mentioned in a source Altmetric tracks
4. including a hyperlink back to the original research output.

Altmetric and non-traditional research outputs (NTROs)

​​The research outputs that Altmetric tracks include not just scholarly publications, but also datasets, code and non-traditional research outputs (NTROs) including news media, policy documents, posters, creative practice outputs, websites and more.  

"Altmetric" by Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0

The multi-coloured Altmetric doughnut represents the volume and source of online attention. 

The number in the middle of the doughnut is the Altmetric Attention Score, a product of the number of mentions and the quality of the mentions' sources. For example, a mention in online news media scores higher than a Reddit post. 

The colours of the doughnut represent the sources of online mentions. For example, blog posts are yellow, X (formerly Twitter) is blue and policy documents are purple. The amount of each colour changes depending on which kinds of sources make up the mentions.

Many databases include the Altmetric Attention Score along with traditional citation metrics.  

For further information, see Numbers Behind the Numbers: The Altmetric Attention Score and Sources Explained.

You can search and filter to display altmetrics on particular research outputs, authors, publications, research teams or institutions, and you can explore the data by timeline, demographic, mentions and mention sources. You can also search by subject or keyword. 

Use Altmetric Explorer to:

• Explore the research landscape and discover what is receiving attention in your research area and what research questions are likely to have high impact.
• Discover relevant non-scholarly outputs.
• Monitor and track early engagement in your own research outputs, before citations begin to accumulate.
• Collate evidence of your research impact.
• Identify effective communications channels by analysing where other research in your area is being noticed.
• Find who else is researching or talking about your field.

You can create a report to share, either as a static pdf or as a dynamic link which is usable even by people without subscription access to Altmetric Explorer. If you share your report via a link the data are live and will update automatically to reflect changes.

Two steps to creating a report

1. Run and save a search in Altmetric Explorer, then go to your Saved Searches in the menu on the left.
2. Create and edit your report. Here, you can select what you want to display in your report and choose whether to save a snapshot as a pdf or get a shareable link to the report with dynamic data.

See the following resources for detailed instructions: