The world of Altmetrics, according to Mendeley

Universities are being squeezed more than ever to demonstrate their value, impact and return on investment, based on several factors including research output and outcomes. Impact factors, calculated from journal citations, have traditionally been used to assist the evaluation process but in the digital world is this enough? Alternative measurements are possible from the vast trails of data left behind from actions and interactions on the web. This so called Big data can have big impact, and the growing amount of study and work that is happening in certain parts of the scholarly world are pushing to quantify and qualify exactly what it all means.

Altmetrics have the capability to provide institutions with new insights and overviews of research trends, popularity and impact. Looked at together, these could offer an indication at least of value and return. Libraries might benefit from the assessment of these new data forms, both for the evaluation of their holdings during the validation and analysis phases of Selection Management and for measuring the impact of the particular research areas their institution focuses on. For example, the analytics component of the Mendeley Institutional Edition powered by Swets provides a clear demonstration of what altmetrics can offer. The data it provides can support the central role of the library within the Institution, collecting evidence of the services offered by the library and of its value. Within the dashboard, librarians are able to check which content users are more interested in and from which journals it originates.

In addition, they will have visibility of the research output of their faculty and even the institution as a whole, which can then be benchmarked against others.

Want to know how Mendeley Institutional Edition can benefit your library and support your institution’s research goals? Watch our video today.

If you’d like to read more on Altmetrics, check out our 3 part blog series, beginning here.

In these posts we looked at the merit of emerging web metrics, and how they might be used by academic libraries, and institutions as a whole. We also talked to two pioneers in the altmetrics field, Jason Priem and Heather Piwowar, who provided some great insights into what potential these new metrics may have for a variety of different applications.

Read the full set of articles here:

- Altmetrics for Librarians and Institutions: Part I

- Altmetrics for Librarians and Institutions: Part II

- Altmetrics for Librarians and Institutions: Part III