Using altmetrics for assessing the impact of scientific publications – benefits and disadvantages

Using altmetrics for assessing the impact of scientific publications – benefits and disadvantages

Poster

Savina Kirilova
Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”

The widespread application of new communication methods changed the environment in which scientific information is stored and disseminated. An increasing number of scientists are presenting their research input on the web. They create professional forums and groups in which they quickly and easily exchange scientific information, participate in academic social networks and social reference sharing sites, enabling them to popularize the results of their research and to communicate with each other. This leads to the need to create modern methods of evaluating the research input and the impact of scientific publications. The poster’s purpose is to explain the term altmetrics and to classify the alternative indicators used for assessing the impact of the scientific publications, for example, how many databases cover the article, how many times it has been viewed, downloaded or mentioned in the social and news media. The benefits (broadness, diversity, speed, openness) and the disadvantages (commercialisation, data quality, missing evidence, manipulation) of alternative metrics are described, and how it can replace traditional scientometric indicators for assessing the impact of scientific publications and to increase the influence of researchers.